Contact Centers: How to Avoid Falling Victim to Ransomware
Contact centers – the modern-day version of call centers that handle email, texting and chat, and other app communication alongside calling – are a critical part of customer relations, marketing, and sales for many businesses and organizations. Due to the amount of information they have on individuals, from contact information to billing, they are often a target by hackers. While traditional attacks are compromising data integrity, with millions of pieces of personal data accessed – a data breach; we are seeing a rising trend of criminals using ransomware. Criminals want your money and try to get it directly from you by holding your data hostage – plain old-fashioned kidnapping with a hi-tech spin.
What Can You Do to Avoid Falling Victim?
Contact centers have many potential ways for hackers to gain access to the network and security systems needed to hijack the system and lock it down with ransomware. There are three primary ways you can deny hackers avenues of attack to your contact center.
Practice Better Data Hygiene Through Updates
Prevention is the best cure. Follow standard “data hygiene” principles that you probably hear about all of the time. Update your OS, software, and apps whenever a new release or patch is released. Do this ASAP. Some patches may be released solely as a result of the discovery of a vulnerability. Given the variety of applications needed to run a complex contact center, updates must be given top priority. Learn more in our blog, IT Problems: Yes, Always Run Updates.
Train Employees to Avoid Phishing Attacks
Also, employee training is essential. Contact centers are labor-intensive, and every employee represents an additional risk for human error, allowing ransomware to get through. Watch out for phishing scams. If anything looks “off” about an email, don’t open it. And never open links you aren’t totally sure of. If unsure, send an email back to the sender to verify they actually sent you a link. Also, make sure not to post staff’s direct contact information online.
Make Sure Your Data is Backed Up Properly
The most important thing you can do to make sure your data cannot be held ransom is strictly adhering to a regimen of backups. Routinely backup your data. However, even backups may not be foolproof. If your data has been infected and you are unaware of it, or the backup is not segregated from your network, your backups may also be corrupted.
Given the severe consequences of a ransomware attack to a contact center, consider having a security evaluation done by a managed service provider who will have the security expertise to advise you on the best backup protocols for your situation. Triton Technologies can help you not only figure out what went wrong but how to make sure your network doesn’t suffer another ransomware attack. Contact us today.
