Ransomware attacks come with high recovery and opportunity costs. Especially for SMBs that operate with more limited budgets, these increasingly common attacks can dampen their financial outlook and prevent them from embracing opportunities in the future. However, ransomware always requires a foothold, and every organization can take steps to ensure that they are not inviting these attacks to damage their business.

Brand reputation is a cherished and hard-earned standard that can quickly erode when a data breach strikes. With more consumers demanding a track record of high data security standards before doing business with a company, organizations have every incentive to build their reputation on the bedrock of strong data security procedures.

While it’s unclear how cybercriminals accessed the organization’s communications platform, it’s possible that they walked right through the proverbial front door. With millions of user logins available on the Dark Web many hackers have critical login information available at their fingertips. Unfortunately, the consequences for businesses can be devastating.

It’s inevitable that phishing scams will make their way into your employees’ inboxes. Fortunately, these attacks are useless if employees identify the threat and don’t engage with the email. Employee awareness training can empower email recipients to become a strong defense against phishing scams but waiting until after a breach to provide this training is fruitless.

Ransomware attacks are uniquely expensive, bringing hefty recovery and opportunity costs that are compounded by the less-quantifiable reputational damage that accompanies an attack. However, they aren’t as inevitable as many people think, as these malware attacks always require a foothold. In this case, a phishing scam allowed hackers to access to company’s system and infect its network.