In May 2017, the WannaCry ransomware struck across the globe. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to the victim's data and threatens to publish or delete it until a ransom is paid. Usually it demands payment by Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and a digital payment system. This particular new strain of ransomware is considered far more dangerous since it can spread itself across an organization’s network by exploiting a critical vulnerability in Windows computers.
The people that were running older, unsupported versions of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, were initially at risk, but Microsoft released an emergency security patch for these platforms. Almost all victims of the cyberattack were running Windows 7.

Defending Your Technical Habitat
At ICE Consulting, we have had many customers come to us for help AFTER they have been attacked. We know that defending your technical habitat is vital in this day and age. We have deep expertise in this area. Protecting against ransomware can be difficult since these hackers alter their programs to defeat anti-virus detection. However, antivirus is still one of the best methods to protect yourself against known ransomware in the wild.

“It might not be possible to completely eliminate your risk of becoming a victim of ransomware, but you can substantially lower your chances of becoming exposed to a threat by keeping your computer’s operating system along with antivirus software updated with the latest security and critical patches. It is also important to do regular backups of your data and store the backup data on a device that isn’t online,” says ICE Founder Uzair Sattar.

ICE Helps Protect Your Business: From Data Backups to Education

At ICE, we can help you protect your business. We’ve been providing IT services to our clients for more than 20 years, and have seen technology continually evolve. And through our 1000s of engagements with customers, we have become experts on the latest technologies and security issues.

• Regular Data Backups — We can help protect your business from ransomware via daily regular data backups so you can always have something to roll back to when ransomware rears its head.
• Education ­— We can help educate your employees about suspicious emails, and instruct them not to click suspicious links. We recommend that if an employee thinks he/she may have been infected, to disconnect all networked devices immediately! This is the best policy to prevent the threat from spreading.
• 24/7 Live Support — We stay on top of your security state, and need to be aware of any changes that have an impact on security or compliance. Our 24/7 Live Support makes us stand out in the crowd of Managed Support Professionals.

If we’re acting as your MSP, and if a user has been affected in your company by an internal ransomware or other threat, we will run a test patch before you install it company-wide. Our engineers have found that one of the problems with affected companies is that when they try to resolve the problem on their own, the patch takes place too slowly. We suggest that once a fix has been successfully tested that it must be deployed quickly and efficiently to ensure no other applications break.

ICE uses multiple methods to make sure your networks are secure. We install security software that protects your network endpoints and we analyze the traffic going in and out of your networks. By protecting your network from all these angles, we feel more than confident that if one method doesn’t work, the other two will still keep the network secure.