Dec. 6, 2017 – Who is targeted by cyber criminals?

Everyone – and especially those not taking precautions, says Joseph Granneman, CEO of illumination.io, a cybersecurity consulting firm. “They’re going to go for the easiest victim,” he says. “Even small practices can be a target.”

In this video, Granneman talks about ways to prevent becoming a victim of cyber attack.

Cyber criminals usually find a way into your system through phishing, a website vulnerability, or a browser exploit. And size doesn’t matter: every practice – and everyone – is at risk.

What are they looking for? While in the past, the cyber criminals were interested in identity theft or credit card information, that generally isn’t the case now.

Instead, they want to hold your information for ransom, Granneman says. “Ransomware is the up and coming thing.”

How can you prevent becoming a victim of ransomware? By keeping up on your basic security precautions, Granneman says.

This includes:

• Using strong passwords: It doesn’t take much time to crack an 8-character password. But it can take months to crack a 20-character password. Use a sentence, with punctuation and capital letters.

• Keep your devices updated with the latest security patches.

Right now, they’re going after all types of information – but Granneman anticipates that cyber criminals will figure out which types of information are the most valuable to hold for ransom.

“You can imagine, especially in a legal environment, if they figure out what’s important to you,” Granneman says. “Then they can put a higher price on that.”

Joseph Granneman presented at the 2017 Wisconsin Solo & Small Firm Conference.