The spread of WannaCry and Petya earlier in 2017 has been a harsh reminder to backup and protect your computers and network. WannaCry, also known as WCry, and Petya are a malicious pieces of software called ransomware. Ransomware is a computer attack, usually a Trojan, that encrypts your computer’s files and demands payment to decrypt and unlock them. You are effectively locked out from your own files until you pay the ransom.

WannaCry was particularly virulent and widespread, with more than 57,000 infections. According to data from Avast, the attack mainly hit Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, however, more prominent infections include hospitals in England and Telefonica in Spain.

Petya rapidly spread through Ukraine before infecting at least 63 other countries, including the US, according to Microsoft. Banks in Ukraine were hit hard by the virus.

Ransomware, viruses and other computer attacks not only feel incredibly invasive, they are disruptive to business. In the case of WannaCry infected hospitals in England, they can be downright life-threatening.

How Can You Be Prepared?

First and foremost, you must backup your data on a consistent and regular basis. If your organization is not doing so already, you are at critical risk of all kinds complications, not just ransomware like WannaCry. Maintain local, offsite and cloud backups to ensure maximum business continuity. You may never need to use them, but the one time you do will make the investment worthwhile.

Read More: 4 Reasons to Backup to the Cloud

You should also have a disaster recovery plan in place. This includes a series of checks and steps to take should you encounter a natural or digital disaster against your IT environment. Backing up your data is just the first step, what you do with those backups in the event of a disaster is just as important. We can even help you get started with a disaster recovery plan.

Managed IT services are also a great value in protecting your business. Partnering with a managed service provider for desktop monitoring, antivirus support and patch management ensures that your computers are being watched, guarded and loaded with the absolute latest Windows and software updates by a dedicated team. It’s easy to let operating systems, antivirus software and other applications go without updates when your organization is focused on other important matters. It’s good to have a partner handling these tasks in the background.

Here at A&A Office Systems, our Cloudsmart managed services program can even blacklist domains related to ransomware via content filtering. This gives us a powerful killswitch to better protect our customers.

When it comes to your business, your livelihood, it is incredibly important to remain vigilant. Backup your data, protect your systems, develop a plan for disaster recovery and business continuity. WannaCry and Petya are harsh reminders that there is no better time to start than right now.

A&A Office Systems is committed to protecting our customers from malicious attacks. Contact A&A for a look at cloud services that can keep you secure.