In April, Marks & Spencer’s was hit with a ransomware attack, effectively shutting down their online services and resulting in serious problems with ensuring that they had stock on their shelves. The hack has cost the business £300m in profits for the current year; around a 30% hit, as well as half a billion pounds lost from the company’s value.
What is a ransomware attack?
A ransomware attack is where perpetrators gain access to a company’s internal systems and servers (typically using hacking, a phishing attempt or social engineering, or a combination of these) and encrypt the information so that documents and files cannot be read, and programs cannot be run.
This effectively disables the business, and holds the company to ransom. Hackers then demand a fee in order to decrypt the information and restore their services, and often threaten to release customer data if the business does not comply.
The hacking group Scattered Spider has claimed responsibility for this attack, as well as the attack on the Co-op. In the ransomware attack against the Co-op, the Co-op took their own IT services offline, effectively preventing the attack from continuing. Whilst this still resulted in their services being temporarily shut down and disrupted, it meant that the group were not able to encrypt their data.
The results of these hacks were wide-reaching; both businesses had to halt a number of their services. For M&S, they were unable to stock their shops, take online orders, run their jobs portal or use their internal systems. Personal data was also taken, including names, email addresses, home addresses, telephone numbers and online order history.
Keeping your business safe
Whilst this hack targeted a large business, it's important to note that 43% of cyber attacks target SMEs. When SMEs fall victim to a cyber attack, 60% of them go out of business in the following six months. As such, it is important for SMEs to take note of how to keep their organisation safe from ransomware attacks.
At the end of May, M&S confirmed that access to systems was gained through social engineering. Social engineering is a way of obtaining information by exploiting human error; for example, a perpetrator gaining access to a building by holding something heavy, and waiting for an employee to open the door for them. In this case, it is likely that someone posing as a staff member contacted M&S and obtained their login details.
There are a number of things that businesses can do in order to protect themselves against these kinds of attacks:
1. Establish clear security guidelines
Social engineering attacks take advantage of a person’s empathy, in that they depend on an individual wanting to help someone who has been locked out of their account, or needs access to the building.
As such, SMEs need to have clear security guidelines when login details or sensitive information is requested. Ensure that your staff are aware of these guidelines and that there is a strict procedure to follow when payments are requested, invoices are received or sensitive information is required.
2. Ensure staff are using MFA
MFA stands for multi-factor authentication, and it means that when login details are used, a third piece of information is required. This is typically a code texted to a mobile device held by the user, or provided via an authenticator app.
Using MFA ensures that even in a situation where login details are stolen, the perpetrator is unable to gain access to the account, server or systems without the additional piece of information. Multi-factor authentication is a quick and simple way of decreasing the possibility of a successful hacking attempt.
3. Educating your team
Ensuring that your staff are educated is one of the best ways of preventing your business from falling victim to a hacking attempt. Transcendit has partnered with U-Secure, in order to offer businesses a way of educating their employees. U-Secure is cyber security training software, which sends short training courses and quizzes to your staff, collects the results, and records them so your organisation knows who needs a little extra support.
If your business would like a free 30-minute demo of U-Secure, or you’d like to talk about whether it's suitable for your organisation, our IT Support Engineers will be happy to discuss this with you.
Want to make sure your business is protected? Call us 0191 482 0444
