14 DAY TRIAL // Ransomware is such a potent threat nowadays that even security researchers are afraid of what could happen if it ever hits their own systems.
At the RSA 2016 security conference that took place at the start of the month in San Francisco, security firm Tripwire conducted a survey among 200 security professionals on various topics.
Questioned if their business would be able to recover crucial data after a crippling ransomware attack, only 38% said they were fully prepared for something like this.
On the other hand, 49% said they were somewhat confident they could recover most of their files while 13% admitted that a ransomware attack at this point would severely damage their ability to do business and even lead to the loss of critical data.
Since ransomware has been wreaking havoc in hospitals, town halls, fire departments, police stations, and other critical infrastructure providers, 73% of the surveyed professionals admitted that these services were more vulnerable to the consequences of ransomware attacks than other types of businesses.
"Organizations should focus on improving backup and restoration procedures to reduce the cost of restoring data and services after a potential breach," Travis Smith, senior security researcher for Tripwire, advises companies.
About half of top-level managers fail to recognize phishing emails
Besides ransomware, the other attack vector that's been plaguing companies, often leading to devastating data breaches, is phishing emails.
Phishing training is crucial these days, since all employees - but especially top-level execs - must be able to spot these fake emails, which, when duped, can expose internal application passwords with full admin access.
Curiously, these respondents, even if working for a security firm, admitted that, in 52% of the cases, their bosses wouldn't be able to recognize a well-put together phishing campaign.
This is a big problem, since 58% of these respondents also revealed an increase in phishing scams during the past 12 months, with only 25% saying phishing attacks decreased while 17% were not sure.
