GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — With today's advanced technology, cyberattacks are becoming more common and more difficult to prevent. Darrin Johnson, a senior network consultant and cybersecurity expert for the consulting firm Progent, says cyberattacks are happening to businesses big and small.
"It's everybody everywhere," Johnson said. "I've seen mom-and-pop, non-profit organizations, all the way up to the largest companies in the world that are infrastructure backbones."
He says oftentimes cyberattacks are caused by employees who unknowingly click on an email or website that allows attackers into their system.
"Usually somebody is clicking on something, they don't know what it is, they don't know where it came from, and they don't know who it is," Johnson said.
Tony Ciangiarulo, the vice president of business development at Progent, says attackers can even send fraudulent emails that look like they're coming from someone you know.
"Anytime you get an email and it's just something that strikes you as slightly different, they've never asked for this before, I've never seen them spell my name this way, they always refer to me as something else - stop," Ciangiarulo said. "Call your friend, call your colleague, and ask them 'did you send this to me?'"
Cyberattacks can take many forms, from adware that's designed to get you to click on ads, to malware that's designed to harm computers, to ransomware where hackers can prevent you from using your data and demand payment.
"It's not only just making sure you've got your systems patched, up-to-date, proper anti-virus on there, proper Endpoint protection on there," Johnson said. "You've got to make sure you've got good password policies. It's all those things that are annoying to people, like setting up two-factor authentication."
Johnson says taking preventative steps such as rotating passwords and understanding your business's vulnerabilities is key to preventing cyberattacks.
"You have to button up all of the holes in your entire security profile," Johnson said. "The one time they get through on one of those things that isn't fixed, they're going to get into everything."
