The Waterloo Catholic District School Board reacted quickly by immediately seeking help from the hands of a third party security company. While most SMBs take this tactic as a result of inadequate room in their budgets or misconception of low profile invulnerability, cyber criminals understand the limited capacities of SMBs as they are often targeted more frequently. Reacting to ransomware is typically the most costly and most damaging approach with unpredictable costs. Although nothing is 100%, proactive prevention is the highly favoured approach towards safeguarding an organization’s assets and information.
Dedicated security leadership does not always have to be out of reach for SMBs. Simplified programs including Security Awareness Training and next-gen antivirus tools can help bolster basic cyber security with an additional layer of prevention. Organization wide education and Dark Web monitoring tools can provide enough insight to keep SMBs on the right path to a healthier cyber posture without overreaching beyond budget or even simply left waiting to react.