Like many businesses worldwide, police departments find themselves targets of cybercrime. Earlier this year, the Tewksbury, Massachusetts Police Department found themselves the victim of ransomware and unable to access criminal files and other critical information.
The Boston Globe reported that Tewksbury Police chose to pay a ransom of $500 to the info-nappers. After several attempts by the department to decrypt their own files, they turned to assistance from cyber security firms, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI. After no success, they decided to give into ransom demands.
Paying ransom is becoming the norm rather than the exception for law enforcement agencies. A handful of similar incidents have been reported and police departments everywhere find they’re no more immune than other businesses regarding cybercrime. However, is paying the ransom the right way to combat this crime?
Some security experts believe it may be in certain cases. For example, if the backups are infected as well, restoring from them is not going to be effective. However, implementing security measures is better and won't help lead to more ransomware crime.
All organizations should take some time to make sure anti-malware software is installed on all systems and that it is kept updated. Implementing a regular patching schedule and applying the latest security and critical patches immediately after they are released is also paramount.
In addition, make sure backups of all important data are completed regularly and often enough that if they need to be used, the data is current enough to make it effective. This could be daily, but may be more or less often depending on your business needs.
Finally, educating employees may be best solution to malware prevention. This is a cost-effective avenue for police departments to pursue. Eighty-four percent of IT professionals surveyed by KnowBe4 agree that prevention education is the most effective tool against ransomware attacks. Keeping employees aware of common sense tactics, such as not opening links and pop-ups, is a small but rewarding step in the right direction.
When a concerted effort by top law agencies in the country fails to retrieve captive information, investing some time and money in basic security products and processes, as well as simple grass root efforts like education are better ways to spend budget money. Certainly much better than paying ransom money to cyber criminals.
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