Hackers Targeting SMB’s
Are Hackers Targeting SMB’s now?–a compelling article from SonicWALL sharing a recent story of a small business getting hit by Ransomware.
It was a Tuesday afternoon. Liz, a local attorney with 26 years of experience, had given up.
She was easily over 20 hours in to trying to free her computer, with all of her files, from a ransomware attack. She just spent a few thousand dollars on a local IT team to break the encryption and remove the malware. They ultimately couldn’t succeed, but charged $2,000 for their time anyway.
Law enforcement and a local FBI contact both shrugged their shoulders. They only offered sympathy instead of a commitment to investigate. With all of her client files locked, she did what roughly 5 percent of small businesses did this year: contact the hacker via the email address in the ransom note.
Shortly later, a message came through: “Hi, the price to decrypt your files is 1.5 bitcoin.”
With icy fingers, she proceeded to converse with the hacker, via a Russian-based email address, who was going by the name Alkash; possibly an Armenian slang term for “alcoholic.” She began to negotiate with him by acting as an elderly person with little money. She told him she had about $350. His reply was simply, “No.”
For a complimentary cybersecurity consultation please contact EnhancedTECH at 714-970-9330 or at sales@enhancedtech.com. EnhancedTECH also provides cybersecurity training to companies in the Orange County Metro area. Contact us for more information.
Samantha Keller
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