Ransomware Infection Reveals Bigger Problems For Financial Firm

In addition to paying ransom fees to retrieve locked files, inadequate security protection puts a financial service firm out of compliance with industry regulations.

For more than seven years, Anthony Oren has been the CEO and tech maven of Nero Consulting, an MSP and technology consultant in New York City that specializes in providing cloud-based solutions and business continuity strategies for a flat monthly fee to businesses of all sizes and industries.

One of the biggest trends Oren has seen impacting a majority of companies in recent years is the exponential increase in cybersecurity threats — especially ransomware, which the FBI says has become a $1 billion problem. “By the time some companies reach out to us for help, they have no choice but to pay the ransom to get their data back,” he says.

That was exactly what happened to a 15-person financial services company recently. Although the firm used a popular consumer cloud backup service, the only way data could be recovered was one file at a time. “It would have taken a week or more to restore their 100,000-plus files,” says Oren. “At that point, it was more economical to pay the fine, which was about $1,200 USD or 2฿ in bitcoin currency, and get it back from the criminals, which took about two hours.” Thankfully, the firm’s story doesn’t end here. The incident presented a good opportunity for Nero Consulting to show the company that this incident was a symptom of a much bigger problem, which required what Oren calls a tech Ninja’s expertise.