Why are you still waiting?

Every week we talk to our partners and end users about the impact a partial or fully successful Ransomware attack can have on an organization.

With technology that exists to protect data (and no its not backup) even if their security tools are evaded by the malware, we are all amazed that a majority of organizations in certain countries continue to take a cultural approach of: I'll wait until it happens.

These organizations will all have a good level of security maturity deployed across their infrastructure and believe that they have done enough to lower the risk to their business.

If you look at one such region the Caribbean, recent attacks on Bureau of Standard Jamaica (BSJ), National Certification Body of Jamaica and the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority, Petrojam Limited , Financial Services Commission Jamaica show that the impact of business disruption and financial costs is clearly proving that waiting is no longer a viable option.

Public and private organizations need to start taking notice of local experts such as Godphey Sterling , head of JaCIRT, who previously warned of Jamaica being a possible soft target for disrupted cyber gangs that had nefarious operations clamped in Europe. At that time, he spoke to the country’s vulnerable cyberinfrastructure.

Sterling said then that the cyber gangs rake in tens of millions of dollars from local businesses and, possibly, individuals as part of a global ransomware scheme that is projected to cost US$6 trillion by 2026.

Edward Millington - BSc, CISO, CISSP, ISO, SOC 2, ISSA, MCIIS, MIET Velton Gooden Neil A. Duncan CariSec Global Inc. Gordon Cowan