Weathering Malware

Malware Attack Hits the Weather Channel

According to The Verge, the Weather Channel went off the air unexpectedly, mid-broadcast, for 90 minutes last month. During that time, programmers rushed to discover, fix, and eradicate an undetected problem. The culprit? An unknown strain of malware. They had been attacked during a heavy storm. It was confirmed later with a tweet from the network stating that “We experienced issues this morning’s live broadcast following a malicious software attack on the network.”

It is still unclear what the intended use for this specific malware was. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to find out or pay any ransom. Instead, their backup systems got them back up and running relatively quickly. Knowing that cyber attacks are on the rise, they had prepared well in advance for a possible attack. This move potentially saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

New strains of malware are released more and more frequently each year. They target everyone from small business owners to local television channels and government agencies. Nobody is safe. The latest, called “WannaCry,” developed by hackers in North Korea, has financially devastated hundreds of companies and has even put lives at risk within the health sector. The reality is that even if this strain is deconstructed, a new strain will be available before measures can be made to prevent it.

The best protection for small and mid-sized businesses is disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). In the past, these solutions were awkward, expensive, and required significant IT expertise. This was a drain on time, made testing difficult, and actual recovery from an outage time consuming and expensive. Now there are affordable solutions that even work for companies with no IT staff. Managed DRaaS (MDRaaS) makes backup and recovery of data and systems effortless. Once implemented, MDRaaS is fully managed, so it requires little time and effort. Testing is included and scheduled around the customers requirements. A single phone call is all that’s needed to restore a file or recreate your environment from scratch. Work with your client to build the right service that will protect them from the storm. We’re always here to help if you have any questions.