The Wannacry ransomware worm is an alert for business IT

The Wannacry worm, that is encrypting data on PCs around the world and holding it for digital ransom, might make good stories for the newspapers, but it creates a welcome alarm call for business IT and network managers. Reading behind the scary tabloid headlines, we see that most businesses had from March to protect themselves against any threat that used the SMB network vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. However, with millions of networks across the world, there is always going to be a percentage who don’t update automatically or are on an older version of Windows that requires extra payments for patches.

While the fallout from the Wannacry continues to show itself, there are several clear points for anyone with a network in their business. Patching and updating is not something to be taken lightly, and there will be many more attacks along these lines as less-talented hackers duplicate this effort using different weaknesses to break into networks. Also, while this is a Windows-focused attack, it can easily be tailored to attack other systems, but that rarely generates this volume of headlines.

If your company has grown at speed, there is a strong likelihood that your business network has grown up in an ad hoc fashion as PCs, and employees are added. Now is as good a time as any to revisit your network infrastructure, check your security management and consider if a rebuild, upgrade or fresh install is required, both for security and business efficiency.

At RHM Telecommunications, we can provide a complete network solutions system with telephony and firewall to protect it against intrusion. We can provide remote support for the network and monitor it for points of failure. Networks can be wired or wireless, with the latest in public WiFi hotspots that meet Digital Economy Act regulations.

Whatever your networking and connectivity needs, we can provide faster broadband to cope with the demands of a growing business, secure networking to protect the business and cost-efficient telephony. If you want to manage your own network security, that is not a problem, but we will always be on-hand to provide support for businesses in the south-west or around the country. Get in touch today.