Professional Textile Care Businesses BEWARE! Protect your ICT infrastructures from hacking attacks

According to ABS Laundry Business Solutions (ABS), businesses worldwide are threatened by professional hacking teams with ransomware. Over the past five years the damages to companies have increased from approx. $325 million in 2015 to an expected $20 billion in 2021.

In the past 18 months malware in the ICT infrastructure has put daily operations at risk in various businesses in the laundry industry. In general the hackers work according to the following approach:

  • A hacker compromises an end-user workstation, often starts from spam or targeted emails
  • Gathers credentials to access other workstations and servers (Credential Theft)
  • Destroys backups / de-activates backup system
  • Copies valuable data
  • Encrypts or ‘takes hostage’ server infrastructure and as many workstations as possible
  • ‘Requests’ a large ransom to decrypt data and release systems

The company advises that your backups should be able to bounce ransomware attacks and should be tested on a regular basis. In general, ICT infrastructure and operating systems should be kept up to date, periodically patched and hardened against Credential Theft. Finally, in case it actually happens to your organisation, it is very important that there is a recovery plan in place. You must be sure that you can rely on your backup solution and standby systems – if necessary.