Michael DeMarco

Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, your business was infected with ransomware, and—despite our advice not to—you decided to pay the ransom. Once the money’s handed over, that’s the biggest cost that you might be subjected to, right?

Not so fast. Ransomware has many more impacts than that, each of which come with their own costs as well. Let’s dive into some of the other factors that also contribute to the cost of ransomware.

Running a business can be stressful, especially if you are a smaller organization or a startup just champing at the bit to grow and become as successful as you know you can be. Unfortunately, as you move through your day-to-day duties and responsibilities, you’re going to encounter situations where you aren’t going to know what to do, or you might feel so overwhelmed that you feel like there is just too much that you don’t know.

For years now, cybersecurity experts have reiterated time and again that it was only a matter of time before smartphones would become a target for major cyberattacks like ransomware. The facts are that most people use smartphones and most of these devices aren’t really protected with active antivirus software. It stands to reason that ransomware is developing into a major trend in mobile cybercrime. Since ransomware is the grand-daddy of threats, keeping it off your systems is essential.

The laptop is one of the most useful innovations in modern computing—not only is it capable of accomplishing most (if not all) modern workplace tasks, it does so while offering the portability that today’s mobile operations require. However, these productivity workhorses don’t last forever…but how do you know when the time has come to upgrade?

It always helps to be a little skeptical of any new USB drives appearing in the workplace, especially if you are security-minded. Distributing threats via USB drives is a common practice amongst hackers, and a new threat called Raspberry Robin has the potential to be a serious problem for unsecured businesses with poor security hygiene.