Cybersecurity
Manufacturing Plant Dodges a Shut-Down from Ransomware
Bob was finishing up for the day and quickly checked his emails for any last-minute needs. He opened his last email and saw a link to view some documents from a manufacturing client. Bob quickly clicked the link and noticed that something wasn’t right. There were no documents to look at; only a message that said Bob needed to pay a large sum of money to get his information back. All of his data, documents, files... everything was locked and encrypted.
Sadly, the information that was locked was the company’s entire server, including inventory, sales, customer information, and practically his entire company’s livelihood. Bob shook his head because he realized he just clicked on a bad link that introduced ransomware into his entire system, which could have a devastating effect on his production line and bottom line.
Bob started to panic, but then remembered that On Technology Partners (OTP) had helped his business prepare a Disaster Recovery Plan, which he remembered included something about antivirus and ransomware protection.
Bob picked up his phone and called OTP. He talked to one of their cybersecurity experts who reminded Bob that there was no need to panic. He was using OTP’s Ransomware Resistant Solution, and this allowed them to replace the infected environment with a ransomware-free environment. Because the solution included the correct backup service, Bob’s production line and his entire company was protected and back up and running within 30 minutes. Minimal lost production time, no lost information, and Bob did not have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to any hackers to get his information back.
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Fake Support Call Nearly Devastates Small Business
While engaged in normal Internet browsing for a client job, Jackie wound up at an unsecure site. This set off a series of steps that led Jackie to allowing a hacker to gain access to her computer. A message popped up onto her screen stating that she needed to call Microsoft now to fix her account or she would lose all of her information. Then a loud siren went off, screeching through the office, along with a phone number for her to call flashing on her screen.
In a panic, Jackie called the number and started talking to the person she thought was from Microsoft. She gave him access to her computer so he could “fix” it, but when she saw him searching her computer for financial information, she realized the huge mistake she had made. She knew she needed to call On Technology Partners (OTP) for help.
OTP was able to help Jackie. With the help of OTP’s Monitoring Solution, the team logged into Jackie’s computer and saw that the hacker was trying to disable the antivirus software, infiltrate her QuickBooks, and search for other financial information. OTP removed the hacker’s access and shut him out of Jackie’s computer. They also removed any files the hacker installed. Fortunately, no financial information was stolen, and her system was clean.
After everything was back to normal, OTP provided cybersecurity training sessions to Jackie and her staff to help them understand how scammers work and to decrease their chances of this happening again.
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Nonprofit Nearly Loses Entire Funding for the Year
It was late summer and that meant it was funding time. A non-profit's Funding Team was preparing the necessary documents and information needed in order to submit a grant application for much-needed (and critical) grant funding. This included gathering and compiling information from the past 12 months. All this grant information was contained in a database that was saved on a single server.
The submission deadline was quickly approaching and the Funding Team was feeling the pressure. They were falling behind schedule, but knew they had to meet the submission deadline or they would have zero funding for programs for the next year (which would have been completely devastating to the organization).
The Funding Team was in their last week of preparations when an unexpected error occurred on the server that held their grant information. The server stopped working and became unrecoverable. The Funding Team began to panic as they had no idea how to move forward and meet their deadline without any of their information.
Were they going to miss their deadline, and if so, have no funding for the next year? That would destroy their organization. The Team Leader called their IT Director who knew exactly what he needed to do. Since On Technology Partners (OTP) had been working with him from their inception, he called them and they began fixing the issue right away.
Fortunately, they had implemented a reliable backup solution that included a virtualized recovery solution. Within minutes, OTP initiated their Recovery Plan, creating a virtual server for the Funding Team to work from. Having the proper backup solution in place meant there was only 15 minutes of lost time. The Funding Team was able to complete their grant application on time and receive the funding they needed the next year.
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