Cybersecurity is big business today. For the criminal element, hacking and ransomware delivery high-return and relatively low effort activities and the significant rise in revenue is fueling increasingly more aggressive and costly attacks.
The processes and organizational advancement of these syndicates are astounding. From constructing and offering RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) to expand the footprint and financial opportunities from these attacks to negotiating the size and terms of payments with their victims, their business model is evolving quickly. Those developments should strike fear into your clients.
Of course, most people outside the tech industry don’t keep up with that part of the news. They may hear about attacks on multi-billion-dollar pipeline companies and a litany of enterprise organizations and get a false sense of security that their businesses are simply too small to fall into the crosshairs of those cybercriminals. MSPs know better.
You understand that prevention is critical. As an MSP, you may feel even more fear, uncertainty, and doubt than your clients about cybersecurity issues, and anything you can do to boost your collective defenses will reduce your stress levels.
Educating the decision-makers on their rising risks is essential. Leverage the latest news on the pipeline and meatpacking attacks to get their attention. Emphasize those points through email newsletters and other communications, including reasons why world leaders, including President Biden, are making a big push with prevention initiatives to slow down cybercriminals’ efforts.
Preparing your clients for more proactive measures like cybersecurity awareness training, anti-ransomware and antivirus tools, and a host of other offerings is a critical step. Getting them to understand the need for layered protection is essential. Those first levels of protection give businesses and the MSPs who support their IT systems more time to respond to new attacks.
Frame The Threats
Ransomware attacks are non-discriminatory. Cybercriminals target anything and everything, and thanks to the RaaS model, the cost of entry for aspiring hackers is virtually non-existent today. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of ransomware campaigns originated with that attack model, according to researchers at Group-IB.
RaaS allows virtually anyone to become a purveyor of ransomware, even those with minimal knowledge of the business community or cybercrime. Ransomware affiliate programs often provide the tools, training, templates, and promotional ideas to ensure the success of new members.
With all of those available resources, no business or individual is safe. Your clients should know their risks are rising exponentially, especially those that work with sensitive personal and financial data, as well as those adopting WFH (Work from Home) environments. More importantly, the decision-makers must understand that your team is on the job and employing the latest measures to minimize the risks of attacks.
The shotgun approach that ransomware purveyors employ does not discriminate. Whether your client operates a small convenience store or a regional bank or credit union, attackers are just looking for a way into any system to begin reaping their rewards.
Thanks to automation, these activities are relatively effortless for cybercriminals: many leverage templates and email marketing-type tools to phish massive lists of potential targets. Snaring just one or two unwitting corporate employees in those traps can provide cybercriminals with a healthy return on their investments. Once someone opens that initial door to their computer, ransomware moves like wildfire through internal systems and may even initiate and send messages to external contacts. There are few limits to what a cybercriminal can do after gaining access to a business network.
Tech professionals understand those threats. MSPs need to have a firm handle on how much their clients know about the current state of ransomware attacks. Do the key decision-makers appreciate the existing risks and how rapidly cybercriminals are changing games? Cybersecurity measures must be predictive today to stay ahead of the hackers.
The reality of the situation is ransomware prevention is now a high-stakes chess game between your clients and attackers. A “win” for cybercriminals could mean big money, but for your customers, victory means business as usual for another day. Prevention is the payoff for the “good team.”
Ransomware Deterrence to the Rescue
No MSP wants to see their clients become victims. However, the continual rise in ransomware attacks and the related stories can help you educate and convince clients to boost their cyber defenses. For the cost of a cup of coffee per user each month, MSPs can save themselves and their clients big money later − not to mention keeping their data, productivity, customer satisfaction, and company reputation.
Sharing the latest cybersecurity standards and recommending upgrades is in their best interest, as well as yours. Multi-factor authentication and encryption should be mandatory. Adding a premium yet cost-effective anti-ransomware solution like CryptoStopper to the mix is business-critical today. For pennies each day you can minimize the need for you or your clients to pay thousands (or more) at some point in the future. Adding the power of CryptoStopper anti-ransomware solutions to an MSP’s portfolio is a small investment that can reap big rewards for those in high-risk environments – which is just about any business today, including IT services firms.
Of course, there are a litany of other standard offerings that could or should be in that cybersecurity stack, including network security monitoring tools, antivirus, web vulnerability scanners, packet sniffers, firewalls, and penetration testing services.
Raising the cybersecurity bar reduces the stress on your team and theirs and prevents those organizations from being the “lowest hanging fruit” for criminals. Elevating the threat level on ransomware through various communications methods helps ensure your clients are paying attention. Adding CryptoStopper to your solutions stack provides real protection and can reduce everyone’s angst and headaches.
