Don’t Allow Your Company to Get Hacked Like Garmin

Last month, Garmin endured such a severe cyberattack, it cost them $10 million in ransom to regain control over their systems. It doesn’t matter how large your company is, if you don’t have the proper technology in place, no one is invincible from malicious thieves and the pandemic has only made their efforts stronger. Learn more about the impact of this ransomware attack, and discover what you can do to prevent it from happening to your business.

Background on the Attack

On Thursday, July 25th, the fitness brand’s Garmin Connect portal was hacked. The breach prevented Garmin’s customers from being able to contact their call centers as well as access their web and app services. According to Cybereason’s chief security officer, Sam Curry, Garmin’s attack was “crippling” to their company and will most likely cost them millions to repair the damage.

Five days after the attack occurred, Garmin was left with no other choice than to pay the pricey ransom to retain control over their business and get their services back online.

What Made Garmin Vulnerable

The effects of the Garmin attack will likely be long-lasting and devastating to the company. As the ransomware most likely infiltrated customer data, consumers most likely will be hesitant to put trust back into the company, and may even look to competitors out of fear the breach will occur again. So what made the fitness brand open to such a vicious attack in the first place?

During the pandemic, scammers are on higher alert than ever before as companies are not in their comfort zones, and unable to follow typical processes. With the surge in remote workers, hackers are able to find points of vulnerability a lot easier. For instance, when remote workers connect their personal devices to the VPN, any viruses on that device can penetrate the system. Many hackers are even sending out phishing emails to lure employees to click onto harmful links. Whether we are experiencing a pandemic or not, it’s crucial to ensure your company has all the proper technology to protect yourself from enduring a breach.

How to Protect Against Hackers

Do not let your company become just another victim to these malware attacks. Instead, work towards investing in the proper platforms to protect yourself and your employees. Explore the top security platforms that are standing strong to keep workers both in the office and remote protected:

Cisco Meraki: Want further visibility into how your employees are using their devices? The Cisco Meraki Dashboard gives employers complete access to what is being clicked on by their workers. This can help monitor the employees to ensure they are not going to connect to anything suspicious that can harm the company’s network.
Cisco Umbrella: Integrated cloud security platform Cisco Umbrella brings intense DNS-layer security and threat intelligence. Umbrella’s secure web gateway also provides visibility into consumer web traffic, but also goes a step further by providing endpoint protection against malware. Suspicious web traffic can be blocked so users will not be able to access harmful sites.
Datto: If you do undergo an attack and don’t want to lose access over all of your crucial data, Datto can help. Through a remote motoring system, Datto provides frequent cloud backups and gives users the opportunity to jump back to a point in time before the attack occurred.

Try A Managed Service Provider

The harmful truth is: hackers are still not taking a break. In fact, scammers are actually stepping up their game to infiltrate businesses’ infrastructure. The pandemic has just proved that technology will be ever more important in the future. If you are in need of secure technology that will work well in your work environment, Nutmeg Technologies can help locate your match. Contact us today for immediate assistance.