Read on and decide if you need to change something about your own business or find a way to help these other business owners.
Australian Businesses Are Targeted by Ransomware Attacks
Cryptowall is believed to attack Australian businesses. The software is exploiting security vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Internet Explorer, Java, and Silverlight. Once a computer is attacked, the ransomware will redirect it to a download page where the malware is installed automatically. In the case of Cryptowall, the malicious file is contained in a zip file called resume.zip and is named my_resume_pdf_id-###.scr). Once it is installed, the malware will find the files the individuals behind it are targeting. They will be encrypted in seconds, and the malicious individuals will contact the owner of the computer asking from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 to share the key that would allow the files to be decrypted.
Protect yourself by always updating your software, avoiding to browse suspicious sites or install untrusted software found online. Also, don’t open emails or social media messages and links from untrusted sources.
According to the Australian Crime Commission, 60% of Australians have been cybercrime victims, and nearly 47% of them have been targeted in the past year alone.
Not Even 50% of Australian Businesses Have an Online Presence, 70% Don’t Use Social Media
As incredible as it may sound, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released a report just a few days ago showing that only 47% of businesses have a website or some other form of online representation.
The report also showed that only 31% had a social media presence. The most worrying stats are the ones for companies with less than 4 employees. For these, the report showed that only 38% have a website, only 21% have a social media presence, and only 18% have both.
It’s possible that many business owners don’t even know how much money they’re losing because they aren’t online. Customers can even be lost because they have no way of contacting the sellers of the products they just bought.
Gut feelings are more important than market conditions when it comes to investing
Last month, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released a report that astonished a lot of people. The most surprising subject? Australian business owners tend to invest using their “gut feeling”. The decision to invest isn’t really connected to low interest rates, but rather to how a deal or business decision “feels like”.
20% of Australian Businesses Are Unprepared for Windows Server 2003 End of Support
A study commissioned by Dell estimated that 20% of businesses in Australia and New Zealand still use the server operating system, even though Microsoft ended support for it on 14 July. This is a worrying fact because there will be no more automated updates and security patches, and only a few business owners are willing to pay to fix vulnerabilities and bugs. Attackers will know what security vulnerabilities they can exploit to do the biggest damage.
Protect yourself by buying new licenses. Organisations will have to monitor and isolate servers running Windows Server 2003 or older software versions. The investment in new licenses is a wise one, considering that the auditing of systems running outdated software can cost more than new licenses.
