GroupSense Spoke About Ransomware Prevention at The Fairfax County's Department of Information Technology Event

On Friday, October 15th, GroupSense's CEO, Kurtis Minder, spoke at The Fairfax County's Department of Information Technology event for Cyber Security Awareness Month. Kurtis spoke about reducing ransomware — from prevention through recovery.

About the Presentation:

Ransomware can hit anyone at any time. But the more you’ve done ahead of time to protect your IT infrastructure and cyber security, the less risk you have. However, you need to assume that ransomware will hit your organization at some point which means being prepared is key. By taking some key steps now, you’ll get some peace of mind, along with a more secure and better protected environment should the bad actors strike.

Ransomware Stats - The Digital Pandemic

During his presentation Kurtis gave a few ransomware statistics that emphasize the growing problem with threat actors and ransomware:

• The value of ransom demands has gone up, with some demands exceedingly well over $1 million. ~ Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, 2021
• The total ransomware costs are projected to exceed $20 billion in 2021. ~ Cybercrime Magazine, 2019
• Experts estimate that a ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds in 2021. ~ Cybercrime Magazine, 2019
• On average, ransomware attacks cause 15 business days of downtime. Due to this inactivity, businesses lost around $8,500 an hour. ~ Health IT Security, 2020
• In 2019, nearly 56% of organizations across multiple industries reported a ransomware attack. ~ CISO Magazine

Ernst & Young reports that two-thirds of businesses consider cyber security merely as an afterthought instead of including it in the planning stage of new business initiatives. Even after hearing about the looming threats and ransomware attacks in the media, cyber security still isn't a top priority for many companies. This is because:

• Many organizations lack familiarity with cyber security issues, nuances
• It can be difficult to assess risk, measure asset value
• “It won’t happen to me” syndrome
• “We have an incident response plan….”

GroupSense does some of the largest negotiations for ransomware. Ransomware is a quick and easy path to revenue for criminals. Unfortunately, ransomware isn’t always the first play in a criminal’s playbook. They usually have been in your network for a while and deploy ransomware after they’ve accessed all your data. GroupSense’s team of experienced negotiators developed a brief sheet of cyber security tips to help reduce your risk. 

About Kurtis Minder:

Kurtis Minder is the CEO and co-founder of GroupSense, a leading provider in Digital Risk solutions. Kurtis built a robust cyber reconnaissance operation protecting some of the largest enterprises and government organizations. Kurtis has been the lead negotiator at GroupSense for ransomware response cases. He has successfully navigated and negotiated some of the largest ransomware, breach, and data extortion cases world-wide. With over 20 years in the information security industry, Kurtis brings a unique blend of technical, sales and executive acumen.