Corporate Cryptocurrency hush fund established

Jan 17, 2018 | Security-GRC | 0 comments

A rash of ransomware attacks demanding cryptocurrency bribe payoffs in order to regain access has some companies stockpiling the virtual currencies, hedging future ransom payments by investing in currency as its rising.

The WannaCry ransomware attacks in 2017 have gotten the attention of some IT leaders.

The British companies collecting Bitcoin to use as a ransomware hush fund have quite a bit stashed away.

According to a survey of 500 companies by Citrix, companies were stockpiling on average of 23 bitcoins each. That means if each Bitcoin is $10,500, then those companies have $241,500 invested in a Bitcoin hush fund.

There are multiple reasons why companies are starting this new trend. For some, it is so they do not have to publicly disclose their information being breached. Others think that it is cheaper to pay the ransomware fee now and to get their business up and running again, rather than starting an investigation. Making cybersecurity more important than ever, with new ways for hackers to hijack company data and utilize cryptocurrencies for payment.

We take a more proactive stance. Beyond not needing to disclose ransomware breaches, actually NOT compromising customer or proprietary information has much deeper value.

Protecting against ransomware up front saves staff time from re-imaging hardware and protects the work that is done in the gaps between backups.

Here are some tips on how your company can prevent ransomware

  1. Retain secure backups of all your enterprise’s important files, locally or protected in third-party Cloud storage.
  2. Enforce the update to the newest version of the software to stay ahead. Updates patching holes in software making is a basic, but shockingly often skipped a step to keep your users’ computers safe.
  3. Create a culture of educated users. Security awareness training is vital as your users are one of your biggest security threats.
  4. Disable Remote Desktop. If you do not use remote desktop connection then disable it. Hackers utilize this function to access your computer remotely.
  5. Be proactive with the right layering of antivirus/antimalware software.

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