It has been over two years since the initial WannaCry attack. With the way that media works today, most people have forgotten about it completely or assumed it was all resolved. The truth is that the WannaCry virus is still out there and its effect on cybersecurity can be seen in the trends of today.
What Is The WannaCry Virus? What Did It Do?
Back in 2017, the WannaCry virus became one of the most severe and wide-reaching cyberattacks in the world. In the UK alone, it disrupted services in 16 hospitals and 40 NHS organizations. It forced them offline, putting their services in encryption and holding them for ransom. All told, it hit more than 45,000 locations in different places across the globe with varying severity. Teams worked all night to restore some order among the chaos and bring the most crucial facilities back online.
Over 100 countries were affected, and the ransomware demanded payment in bitcoin. The price of ransom went higher and higher as the clock ticked on and there were threats of deletion if the price was not paid. It struck organizations across multiple industries and markets, but the hospitals and medical facilities were the most urgent concern due to the risk of loss of life. The virus exploited the outdated and obsolete technology that many hospitals and NHS facilities still relied on.
That Was Just The Beginning
We are now more two years removed from the initial virus attack, but WannaCry is not gone. The virus was self-propagating from the start. That means it has been making copies of itself and those copies have been making copies. The WannaCry virus now accounts for a solid percentage of the world’s ransomware attacks worldwide on a yearly basis. Just because the news moved on doesn’t mean the virus did. Once the box was opened, there was no way to put it back inside.
What Have We Learned?
It was learned that one of the major contributing factors to the effectiveness of the virus was the lack of current antivirus software on those systems and lax opinion on disaster recovery strategies. Some people might think that software updates are just another way to earn money from you after your initial purchase. Many people will ignore the notifications for critical updates because they have no fear of cyber attacks since their sensitive data has never been compromised before. The WannaCry attack demonstrates the necessity of routinely updating your computer systems and that the cost of upgrading is more than worth the price you could pay without them.
Beyond that, this incident showed that many organizations did not have an effective business continuity or disaster recovery plan. Plans like these would make it possible just to ignore the demands of ransomware and restore the information from your backup solution. Data backups and disaster recovery are two of the most crucial parts of the ways you can protect your organization or company.
What Can Bizco Technologies Do For You?
When you partner with Bizco, we will get to know the details of your business and all of your unique goals. We use this information to develop your cyber security and disaster recovery strategies. Our experts will make recommendations based on what we believe is best for your business. That could mean implementing cloud backups in an off-site data center or just effective ways to fold IT recovery into your business continuity plans.
With us by your side, you’ll have an ally protecting your critical infrastructure and working to prevent data breaches or loss from ever occurring. However, even if one of those unfortunate incidences do happen, you’ll have everything safe and secure in your backup solution. Learn from the consequences of the WannaCry attack and let Bizco Technologies help you defend your company from future assaults.
To learn more about our services, contact Bizco Technologies today.
