As both an entrepreneur and an IT specialist, Lindsey offers a blend of deep technical expertise and commercial insight, delivered in language business owners can really understand and trust. She works with clients to provide a full range of services from strategic advice through to project management and infrastructure support.
Lindsey is an accredited Cyber Essentials Consultant
Every week seems to bring news of high profile cases of new ransom-ware attacks. Its nasty stuff; nasty enough that the US and Canadian authorities yesterday issued a rare joint cyber alert warning about the upsurge in attacks.
The plague doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Enabling the ransom-ware plague is the fact that many businesses and individuals seem to be casual in their habits and unaware of the risks; sometimes over reliant on technical measures to provide safety.
I may be labouring the point (and please forgive me for this), but the advice remains the same:
- Ensure your antivirus is running. Be alert for warnings. Don’t cancel scans just because it is inconvenient or slowing you down
- If Windows is prompting to restart to apply updates; don’t delay
- If you suspect something odd is happening; report it
- Be VERY wary of email attachments, links in emails, websites you don’t know and software offered for free
- Educate your team on the risks; any system is only as strong as its weakest link
- If you havent got regular backups; get some. In the event of a ransomeware attack this may be your only route out of trouble
For those who haven’t already downloaded it, we have a free information sheet for staff available for download here (irony alert … but I can assure you it is safe)
Lindsey Hall
