This "security" thing continues to become more and more of an issue in our business lives, as well as personal. Recently the FBI posted a warning explaining what the potential losses are, including but not limited to: service disruptions, financial loss, and in some cases, permanent loss of valuable data  - and that it is challenging for the FBI to keep pace. Knowing that the FBI only have about 800 cyber agents, including just 600 agents who conduct investigations, the agency doesn’t have the ability to address every attack, and must triage the most significant ones. You are on your own if the damage is less than a few hundred thousand dollars.

Check out the bulletin from the FBI here.

Some of the scarier highlights are:

• Cyber security companies reported that in the first several months of 2016, global ransomware infections were at an all-time high.
• Within the first weeks of its release, one particular ransomware variant compromised an estimated 100,000 computers a day
• Ransomware infection statistics are often highlighted in the media and by computer security companies, but it has been challenging for the FBI to ascertain the true number of ransomware victims as many infections go unreported to law enforcement.
• Recent victims who have been infected with these types of ransomware variants have not been provided the decryption keys for all their files after paying the ransom, and some have been extorted for even more money after payment.
• This recent technique of targeting host servers and systems could translate into victims paying more to get their decryption keys, a prolonged recovery time, and the possibility that victims will not obtain full decryption of their files.
• The FBI does not support paying a ransom to the adversary. Paying a ransom does not guarantee the victim will regain access to their data,

We STRONGLY urge you to read the entire report and pay special attention to the last two sections on "Defense" and "Additional Considerations" and contact our office to setup a meeting with your vCIO to review how you are protected, and what other measures can be implemented to mitigate the risks of being compromised, and then if you are, how you would recover.

Thanks to our friends at www.knowbe4.com for the heads up!