The Government of Nunavut is the latest victim in a string of similar ransomware attacks that seems to be targeting North American governments. The Nunavut government has been unable to provide standard services after the ransomware attack crippled their IT network. According to reports, the comprehensive attack has disabled medical services, family and educational offerings, the local finance department and the territory’s legal system. Costs continue to mount as business opportunity loss (revenues), downtime, remediation and recovery have hit the local government hard. So far, the consequences of the attack have not included any compromised personal information.
As is the case with ransomware attacks, there is no avoidance or even a way to budget for response and recovery, unlucky victims are left to bear the repercussions and mitigate damages. SMBs need to place a high priority on prevention and awareness. In this specific incident, one employee falling victim to a phishing attack was enough to compromise the entire system. With higher layered security, awareness training and prevention protocols in place, it is sometimes enough for organizations to deter cyber attacks or at the very least minimize the risk of threats and mitigate disasters if an incident occurs.