Nearly three quarters of all cyber attacks (71%) are financially motivated. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this makes the sensitive data held by professional services firms an irresistible prospect for cybercriminals. Malware and ransomware attacks carry a heavy cost for these businesses but effective malware protection reduces the odds of a costly breach.
What are malware and ransomware?
Malware is malicious software that’s purposefully designed to damage a computer, server, client or computer network. Typically consisting of code developed by opportunistic cybercriminals, malware comes in wide range of guises, with some of the better-known examples including viruses, trojan horses and spyware.
Ransomware is another type of malware that blocks access to a computer system or encrypts its files. In many cases, hackers demand payment to reinstall access or provide a decryption key. Ransomware accounts for 24% of all malware incidents and is typically spread through spam or phishing emails.
The true cost of malware attacks
Malware and ransomware attacks can be hugely costly for any commercial enterprise, but particularly those in the professional services. The finance sector alone is one of the most likely to hold personal data about its customers, making the industry an obvious and persistent target for malware and other forms of attack.
Whilst malware and ransomware attacks have decreased in recent years, businesses that are targeted in these ways are 54% more likely to suffer a negative outcome – such as loss of data or monetary losses – according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020.
The total cost of a ransomware attack includes the ransom payment (if paid), downtime and staffing to remediate the issue, as well as lost revenue and potentially long-lasting reputational damage. With the rise in working from home practices, managing the risks is a growing challenge for overstretched IT departments.
The best malware protection
Intellesec’s advanced ransomware and malware protection software combines machine learning, behavioural monitoring and a cutting-edge malware prevention engine to deliver advanced protection. With powerful threat hunting capabilities, our security solution is user-friendly and requires zero on-premises hardware.
A network security analyst of more than 15 years, Intellesec founder Sol Pandor advocates a holistic approach to remaining one step ahead of cybercriminals. “Traditional signature-based antivirus software simply won’t cut it against increasingly more sophisticated modern threats, like fileless and polymorphic malware.
“Our powerful endpoint protection solution offers an effective alternative to AV software, delivering an incredibly high level of protection in its own right. Used in conjunction with Next Generation Firewalls, Security Awareness Training, vulnerability scanning and SIEM monitoring, we can build a wall of defence that protects your business from every angle.”
Contact Intellesec today
Intellesec combines state-of-the-art cyber security technology with more than 20 years of industry experience and expertise to keep your business data safe. Our highly-trained network security experts can protect your firm from malicious cyber attacks, data breaches and their associated costs.
For more information, contact Intellesec today on 0116 3266123 or email hello@intellesec.co.uk.
