Ransomware 2: You Need Some Help!

Posted By: Helen Saturday 3rd July 2021 Tags:

This short article is the second in a series of about how we should respond to ransomware attacks. This particular note is about what you need to do at the start. The last article, Responding to Ransomware, talked about whether you pay the ransom or not.

This article deals with getting help because you’re definitely going to need it.

If you are looking at your screen and you see a demand for money, the first thing you need to do is tell your superior. If this happens to be you, take a look below at the details of people that might be able to help you.

At the top of the list is the police. Things have moved on in the last few years and the police take cyber crime very seriously. However, if you check your local forces website, you might struggle to talk to a live policeman for your live situation.

The best path is to contact Action Fraud. There number is 0300 123 2040. For Scotland dial 101.

The Police: 0300 123 2040

While contacting the police is a good move for anyone, it’s essential for those that have insurance for such incidents to do so. If you have this sort of cover, you’ll need a crime number.

Your IT Department

Dependent on the quality of your IT team and what size organisation you are in, you may get substantial assistance from your IT team, or no help at all. Make your IT department aware.  If you are in a large organisation this might be the only thing you need to do, apart from telling your boss.

Your IT Service Provider

If you are in an organisation where a third party looks after your IT infrastructure, you need to contact them, urgently! If you are a client of LaneSystems you need to contact us, urgently! We’ll take it from there. If you’re not a client of ours and you’re based in the North East, give us a call anyway, while we won’t fix your problem for free, we have some considerable expertise in this area and we charge reasonable prices.

Security Consultants

When someone calls from the roof of a flooded house, looking to hire a boat, they’re not in the best of bargaining positions. Make sure that you have a reasonable understanding of what you are purchasing and how much it will cost. Try to get two quotes and perhaps buy consultancy for the first day as a one off to give you some time to shop around a bit.

The Best you can Hope for: A Bit of Scareware

As a brief aside, sometimes what people think is ransomware (extortion software) is really scareware (something else). If you are being asked to buy software because your machine has a zillion viruses, it’s scareware. If you are being asked to part with a significant sum of money because your files have been encrypted, that’s ransomware.

The Takeaway

You can’t do this on your own. Ransomware is a very serious matter; it could threaten the financial and informational integrity of the business. Get help!

*Note* LaneSystems can provide your company with secure data solutions and regular offsite backups along with other services to reduce the impact of malware and to stop this infiltrating your business. Better to act before than react afterwards.