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This is a very important message for all equity principals, partners, directors practice managers and business owners. If you outsource some or all of the IT services and IT support for your Perth professional services firm, this blog contains very important information that will be extremely beneficial for you to know now that could prevent you from making a very big, expensive mistake.
Obviously, what is going on in Eastern Europe and Ukraine right now is absolutely horrible and hopefully a solution can be come up with to make it stop very soon. Naturally, there will be and are many worldwide governments doing everything they can to put pressure on Russia to withdraw and stop what they have started.
Unfortunately, we are not there yet. As I alerted people on social media and in my recent free training I did “The 3 Secrets To Avoiding Your Cyber Liability Claim Being Denied Without Having To Be A Cyber Security Specialist.” The Australian Cyber Security Centre released 2 alerts last week advising all Australian organisations to “…should urgently adopt an enhanced cyber security posture.” As of yesterday (Friday) this is now up to version 7.
The major concern is ransomware operators in Russia have publicly announced they will target western organisations whose governments make moves against Russia. It will also be about getting money to fund their operations as there are many sanctions in place against Russia currently.
On a call I attended last week with a partner we work with they advised they had seen a 300 percent increase in attacks in the space of a few days.
So, what can you and your team do to not fall victim to a cyber-attack?
- Work with a cyber security specialist IT services company and have them implement redundant layers of advanced cyber security protections.
- Don't look for or search on anything to do with the situation in Eastern Europe on any computer or mobile device.
- Be wary of any emails mentioning the situation in Ukraine, Russia and Eastern Europe in the body or subject line.
- Be wary of ads on social media and via search engines that are talking about what is happening in Ukraine, Russia and Eastern Europe.
- Do NOT open ANY attachments from people you don’t know, no matter how pressing it seems or tempting it is to open. Delete it. If it’s truly important, they’ll call you.
- Be on high alert for phishing e-mails from people you know. If it “feels” off or wrong, don’t click on any links or open the attachment. Their system could be compromised and being used to scam everyone in their in-box.
- Only go to known, essential websites.
- Do NOT connect to the firm’s network (e-mail, cloud apps, etc.) via home PCs or personal devices.
- If you suspect an attack or virus, do NOT reboot. Disconnect the PC/device from the network or wireless and call us immediately.
As your trusted advisor, we are encouraging all our clients who have not adopted our recommendations on advanced cyber security protections to contact us immediately to re start this discussion.
If you’re not currently a client and would like to have us conduct a risk assessment on your behalf, complete and submit the form on this page or call our office on +61 8 6244 2556.
Do you want to learn more about how to avoid making a big expensive mistake, what you can do to prevent ransomware, cyber-attacks and ensure your cyber liability insurer will pay your claim in Perth for your professional services firm? Click here and register for our free on demand training titled “The 3 Secrets To Avoiding Your Cyber Liability Claim Being Denied Without Having To Be A Cyber Security Specialist.”
