Cyber Experts Warn of Increased Risks to Local Businesses

Published

3rd March 2022

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Experts at m3 Networks are warning local business to take steps to increase their cyber security because of the increased threat from Russian hacking groups.

“We jumped on this very quickly on the day of the Russian invasion into Ukraine”,said Mark Riddell, Managing Director.

“We reached out to our existing customer base as a priority, urging those that have been slow to implement stronger cyber measures to speed up or risk being left a sitting duck”,he added.

Mark isn’t alone in his warning. Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, along with the FBI and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre have all issued warnings in the past week to businesses that more attacks are coming our way.

“We’re looking to help more local businesses to bolster their security measures.

"the most common attack is ransomware, which encrypts all of your data and demands a ransom in the form of Bitcoin to get access to your data again. But ransomware has evolved and now the criminals are also stealing your data and will carry out a double-extortion to stop them leaking your data publicly. These attacks typically always begin with an email".

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have issued the following advice to businesses:

· patch all systems; 

· improve access controls and enabling multi-factor authentication (critical on email accounts and Microsoft 365); 

· implement an effective incident response plan; 

· check that backup and restore mechanisms are working; 

· ensure that online defences are working as expected

Mark commented, “this is all sensible advice from the NCSC, however most businesses will not have the expertise internally to handle this, and most IT providers don’t have a dedicated cyber security team, so we are seeing increased demand for a “security first” approach to IT. Business leaders are, quite rightly, seeking assurances that their business is a low risk to cyber-attack”.

m3 Networks are offering a no-obligation, confidential chat for any chamber member that is worried about cyber-crime.

You can book a 15-minute call with Mark here: https://m3networks.co.uk/meetmark