Recent Malware is a re-engineering of past IT system attacks
As you may have heard even large organisations fall victim
Here's why:
Systems are not kept up to date.
- Partly Cost or IT/Management are too afraid of change
Protection / defence mechanisms are not implemented.
- As per above, but many mechanisms are provided at no cost and or take very little time to implement.
IT and Management believe they are immune from attack or infection.
- No system is immune. No single operating system is immune eg Microsoft, Apple, Android, Unix, Linux, etc.
The belief that users are all educated, intelligent people who would not fall victim to such attacks.
- Wrong !
Recent attacks were not from a traditional virus and hence antivirus software does not protect systems.
These attacks required the User to download (without their knowledge) and run the code, which uses code embedded in the Operating systems.
What your IT Service Provider should be doing is:
- Deploying best practice systems to add layers on protection to IT System
- Continually questioning their approach and understanding of threats that are being deployed by cyber criminals
- Keeping clients updated with the changing IT ecosystem.
Lessons
- No one or system is immune.
- Be patient with IT and management if there is some inconvenience in communication and accessing files from outside of the organisation.
- Listen to advice, as it is often learnt from experience on other sites.
- The Industry is continually changing, and so do the vectors and approaches that Malware, cyber criminals use.
- Cyber criminals are there to make money, and they are doing very well in recent times