Ransomware Attack On Texas

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 a ransomware attack took place in 22 municipalities in Texas. Computer systems were hacked and held for ransom in a widespread ransomware strike. The cities of Borger and Keene were among those affected. Borger residents couldn’t access birth certificates or pay their utility bills.

Ransomware attacks are a growing problem for governments on a city, state and county level, according to a report by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The type of ransomware was not revealed and no state networks were breached in the attack according to Texas officials.

What is known is that the ransomware came from a single source.

Ransomware

Ransomware is the most common tactic used by cyber criminals because it’s relatively simple to execute and it’s cheap.

This has led to a rise in ransomware attacks since 2017 and most victims are small cities and counties. These cities are perfect because they often have underfunded IT staff and are therefore most vulnerable.

The same reasons that make these places so vulnerable to attack make financial firms vulnerable as well.

Cyber criminals are leveraging ransomware attacks to steal from industries of all kinds, but financial services firms are among the most lucrative.

Here are the reasons why:

They store valuable, sensitive and confidential data that can be sold on the dark web or to a competitor.
They usually have significant amounts of money available. This making them more likely to pay a ransom to get back encrypted data if there’s substantial downtime.
Their IT security is believed to be lacking and inefficient, especially within smaller banks and credit unions.

Ways to Avoid Ransomware & Cyber Traps

Effectively combating ransomware requires implementing technical and cultural measures. This includes:

Training

Ransomware attacks are perpetrated through an email containing an infected link or attached document. Knowing what to look for is half the battle and greatly reduces the chances of falling victim to these attacks.

Here are some telltale signs of a ransomware attack:

There are glaring grammar and spelling errors in an ostensibly professional email.
You receive an email at odd hours of the day or night.
If the link attached to the email connects to an unusual URL. Hover your cursor over the link to check the URL.

Now more than ever it’s important to address this concern. Cyber-attacks affect financial services 300 times more than other companies, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Despite this, BCG found that many financial institutions are poorly equipped to respond effectively to a ransomware attack.

This comes from a failure to prioritize cybersecurity as a top issue. There is an overemphasis on prevention over detection and response. There is also a lack of security awareness in company culture in general, which can worsen the problem.

If employees reuse account credentials like passwords attackers can easily obtain them and cause serious damage. The most dangerous threats come from inside a firm- from a careless employee who fall victim to phishing, spoofing and other social engineering schemes. The resulting losses across the financial services industry run up to tens of billions of dollars.

Securing Your Network

It’s important to train users to recognize certain kinds of attacks, but keeping a secure network requires an approached focused on strong network architecture. An infrastructure capable of detecting and eliminating malware that may have found its way into the network.

It’s possible that your network may contain numerous latent threats, so all applications and email inboxes should be properly scanned for malicious content.

Top IT Service providers, like Nerds Support, deploy firewall as well as implementing comprehensive email security to stop threats before they become problems.

They’re also allow you to segment and control access throughout the network to minimize the spread of a virus attack should it get in.

Backups

When a hacker uses ransomware, they encrypt all data and sensitive information necessary to operate. That means payroll, customer’s financial information, email, internal documents and more. The only way to regain access is to pay a ransom of some kind.

If you backup your data, however, that doesn’t have to be the case. With the right strategy, rather than paying ransom, you can just restore your files from the latest back-up and the cyber criminal’s ploy will have been stopped in its tracks.

Cloud based back-up services are the best at this. Nerds Support provides partners with daily backups and updates all systems with the latest security features to combat cyber-attacks. These advanced solutions even allow you to create a virtual copy of your servers on the cloud and restore all compromised data within minutes of a breach or attack.

The Greatest Risk Isn’t What You Think

It’s logical for a cyber-criminal to target financial firms for the reasons mentioned above using ransomware. It’s a reality of living in an ever-more-digital era. Ransomware and other malware attacks are here to stay and should not be ignored. The greatest damage to a firm is not to their business, their productivity or their infrastructure, it’s to their reputation.

Financial services organizations possess people’s most personal financial information. Social security, banking information, credit history, etc. If you’ve failed to take the necessary precautions to prevent or mitigate an attack and your firm is breached, it will be nearly impossible for anyone to trust you again.

When you take on a client, there is an agreement that you will safeguard their information. There is a supposition of trust. If that trust is broken, the thing your service is founded upon, rebuilding your reputation will be an uphill battle for years to come.

What Does it Mean?

In the case of the Texas attacks, the governments of these municipalities have resources that help them recover. They have taxpayer funding, cyber security experts and other advantages that a private organization does not have. Even with these advantages, it’s still struggling to address the overall issue of cyber-attacks.

According to the cyber security firm Recorded Future, the attacks on these 22 cities were the most organized and coordinated attack they’ve ever seen. The Texas Department of Information Resources (TDIR) are currently involved in trying to bring back all systems online as are officials from other federal agencies.

If this is the type of damage that can be done on government institutions, there is no excuse for negligence on the part of any business let alone one as frequently targeted as a financial organization. Take stock of your current IT resources and make sure your company is properly prepared in all respects against ransomware and cyber-attacks.

For more information on Malware, ransomware and social engineering visit our blog or contact us and we’ll answer any questions or inquiries you may have about how to make your firm safe and secure.