What You Need to Know to Prevent Cyber Hacking
Two well-known companies, Blackbaud and Garmin, both within months of each other, had recently encountered ransomware attacks by cybercriminals who hacked into self-hosted data centers. In both of these cases, the cybercriminals had demanded a ransom in exchange for the stolen data.
Blackbaud is one of the world’s largest providers of financial and fundraising technology for nonprofits. It wasn’t until the staff noticed the malicious activity internally that law enforcement was called in to help the security team negotiate the terms of the ransom with the cybercriminals. This was the second incident this year that impacted a major provider to the nonprofit sector. On March 24th, 2020, MIP, owned by Community Brands, was also the target of a cyber ransomware attack. The attack took place on a non-cloud server system, much like that of Blackbaud.
On the other hand, Garmin has become a household name for personal fitness gear like smartwatches and activity trackers, however, their roots and leadership is built-in navigation technology, not only to its general consumers but also to the aviation industry. Their recent breach left not only consumers frustrated, but also pilots unable to download flight plans. To make matters worse, all communication outlets were taken offline by the cyber criminals leaving Garmin vulnerable and unable to communicate the problem to anyone on the outside. After two long days of negotiation, Garmin settled on a $10M ($10 Million) dollar ransom to free its systems from the cyberattack. The attack may have ended, but the revenue loss, customer data breach, and production shut-downs will impact Garmin for months to come.
Sharing these two stories that happened in recent events is important as it brings into perspective the need for extra security when it comes to not only the data of the company but that of its customers/consumers as well. On average, there is a cyber attack happening every 39 seconds. If that statistic doesn’t scare you, the FBI has reported that since COVID-19, cybercriminals have leveraged the pandemic and specifically those that are now working remote on vulnerable servers, with a 300% increase in cyber attacks since March 2020.
At Canvas Cloud, we make it our number one priority to ensure the safety and security of our customer’s data. We believe that your data is most secure in the cloud. The very core of what we do is to help small businesses and nonprofits migrate over to cloud-computing from self-hosted or third-party hosted servers. If you are not sure where to begin or you are not ready to take that leap, we recommend you read our recent blog on Cloud Computing Basics.
We take pride in walking our clients through the steps and explaining everything thoroughly, so you feel confident knowing your information is secure during the process. As businesses and nonprofits become more technology-based, the need to grow the cybersecurity defense industry will dramatically increase. Don’t wait until it's too late - as the old adage says, “time is money”… but ransom is never cheap.
Let us help you protect your company assets and customer data today by switching to the cloud and decrease your risk of being hacked. Reach out and connect with us to learn more about how we can help at www.canvascloud.com.
