Ransomware Protection in Toronto: 5 Critical Tips

Ransomware Protection is becoming increasingly important for businesses in the Toronto, Mississauga, Markham, and surrounding areas. Having ransomware prevention strategies in place gives your company a fighting chance against these highly sophisticated cyberattacks that are becoming more frequent and costly to deal with.

This guide will look at Ransomware Protection Toronto businesses, like you, should implement right now. We’ll also cover the immediate ransomware remediation steps you’ll need should you have a breach, and when to seek Toronto ransomware removal services. Most importantly, we’ll look at proven ransomware prevention strategies that could ultimately save your business.

2024 Ransomware Statistics Toronto Companies Need to Know

According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCIRC), ransomware attacks are the most common form of cyberattack Canadians face. And this includes businesses, which typically have more resources and money for criminals to extort. The CCIRC has estimated that 2023 cyberattacks cost Canadian businesses over $3B. This means that a main driver of such costs can be directly attributed to ransomware attacks and their impact on business operations and outright expenses. The way ransomware can harm your business is manifold. Here are just a few costs:

• Data Loss/Theft

Ransomware targets central IT systems to render critical data inaccessible, but that’s not all. Besides being unable to use and view your data, cybercriminals can steal and sell your data, which can include private customer information and financial data.

• Downtime

Without access to data or your primary IT systems, you can't work. This means that you are losing money throughout the entire ransomware ordeal. According to a study done by Statistica on US ransomware attacks in 2022, average downtimes range from 15-24 days.

• Customer Loss

Ransomware doesn't just damage your company’s functionality and finances, it can damage your reputation and customer relations. A ransomware breach can leave customers uncertain of your stewardship over their information and may leave.

• Legal Repercussions

Toronto ransomware attacks usually involve a data breach, which affects other people outside of your company. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada requires you to disclose the breach to customers and those whose information was affected. If you fail to effectively document and disclose the scale and impact of your data breach, you could be held liable for legal repercussions.

• Financial Loss

Besides losing work time, you need to factor in the costs of recovering and remediating your data. If the ransomware is catastrophic, you’ll need emergency Toronto ransomware removal services to work with you immediately to resolve the issues. All of these costs compound, resulting in a high financial burden for many companies. Currently, the global average of just a single breach is over $3M. Therefore, recovering quickly and efficiently is key. You’ll want to ensure that the Toronto IT and data security services firm you choose to work with is both fairly priced and effective.

• Business Closure

About 60% of small businesses that experience a major cyberattack - often initiated via ransomware - end up closing. With the costs and reputation loss mounting, many small businesses cannot maintain regular operations.

Depending on the severity of the ransomware attack, ransomware can dismantle your business from the inside out. To best avoid these business-ending threats, you need full-scale Toronto Ransomware Protections. Remember, major cities like Toronto are more at risk of ransomware attacks. If you do undergo a ransomware breach, a proper and immediate response can help you overcome the situation.

Ransomware Recovery in Toronto

Full-scale Toronto Ransomware Protection is not only preventative, it’s also reactive. While you must implement ransomware protections to safeguard your data, you and your team should still be prepared to address ransomware recovery head-on. Let’s review how ransomware works and then address how you need to respond.

How Ransomware Works

About 99 percent of all ransomware attacks come through email. This happens when you or a team member click on a link or open up an attachment within a malicious email by mistake. Once this happens, the ransomware code starts running. The ransomware encrypts all of your data, your files, and potentially your entire operating system. Essentially, ransomware is just a specialized virus. Once activated, the ransomware spreads throughout your network to infect multiple areas of your drive and compromise as much data and as many systems as possible.

Once the encryption sets in, you can't do anything with it until you get the decryption key from the ransomware implementer. Usually, after the data is encrypted, a message appears prompting you to send a ransom payment (usually in Bitcoin) in exchange for the code that will unlock the ransomware.

Once you’ve confirmed that you have ransomware, here are the steps you’ll need to take toward ransomware remediation.

1. Don’t Pay the Ransomware

You might be thinking that if you just pay the ransom, the criminal will give you the key and return control to you with your data intact, right? Not necessarily. Most Toronto Ransomware Protection experts agree that this could only exacerbate the situation. There is no guarantee that the cybercriminal will honor the agreement, and what’s more, there’s a strong chance that a US or Canadian agency will quickly identify and shut down the site causing this ransomware because these criminals usually target many businesses simultaneously.

Even if you pay the ransom, the ransomware criminal could be deactivated at a moment’s notice, even if they would be willing to give you the passkey. But after the ordeal, you’ll likely find that there can still be damage to your data or system as a result of the malware. What’s more, it’s likely that they’ve already hijacked your data anyway and copied it in order to sell the information on the dark web.

Bottom line: don’t engage the ransomware attacker - instead, focus on isolating the threat.

2. Isolate the Affected System

Once you’ve confirmed a ransomware attack, you need to isolate the affected system. If you're on a network, whether it's wifi or connected by an actual cable, disconnect the problem computer from the rest of the network. If you’re using WiFi, disconnect as quickly as possible - anything you can do to cut off the affected computer/system from the rest of the network will help.

By isolating the affected system, you slow and even prevent the ransomware from spreading to other systems. This is also important when data recovery services in Toronto like BSWI get involved to help restore and remediate affected files. They can focus their work on a concentrated area of data, increasing your odds of data/system restoration. On that note, make sure to document the precise area of your system that is affected by ransomware, as this will help professional ransomware removal services begin working right away.

3. Assess the Impact

After you’ve isolated the ransomware, you need to work with your tech specialists to understand the impact of the situation. Things to consider:

• What data has been encrypted?
• What system issues are we having?
• Where were we at this point in time - your backups, processes, deals, etc?

Once you’ve determined the scope of the ransomware, your local data recovery specialists can assess what data can actually be decrypted and recovered. This is where isolating and identifying the site of the ransomware is critical. The faster your chosen data experts can begin remediation, the sooner you can return to normal business functions.

4. Contact Emergency Toronto Ransomware Removal Services

Do not try to recover your data or remove the ransomware yourself, unless you know what you’re doing. This can and usually does make the situation worse. You could end up losing the data you’re trying to save, damage core systems, or enable the ransomware to spread. Instead, contact a local ransomware removal service like BSWI to intervene. We’ll be able to assess the damage, identify what is and isn’t recoverable, and run your backup. Because we are local, this ensures that we can address your issues in real-time, without delay.

Get Small Business Ransomware Protection in Toronto

If you’re a small business, you are just as at risk of ransomware as large companies, if not more so. While cyberattacks on major corporations are highlighted in the news, 85% of ransomware attacks are on small businesses. The reality is that no one is truly safe and that every industry and type of organization is at risk.

2023 saw a record number of ransomware attacks all throughout Canada and the Toronto area. Some of the biggest ransomware cases BSWI followed were the Michael Garron Hospital breach in Toronto and the ransomware attack on St. Marys - a government municipality. Yes, even governments are not safe from cybercriminals.

St. Marys, in particular, was devastated by ransomware that encrypted multiple town systems and stole extensive data regarding residents and other secure information. The ransomware was so devastating that the town ended up having to pay the $290K ransom in Bitcoin. On top of that, St. Marys has lost $1.3M in costs while recovering from the ransomware. Even with cyber insurance, St. Marys was still out a lot of cash.

Moving back to small businesses, consider if you had to pay such a large ransom for your data. Could you afford it? Very often, ransomware extortions are much higher than St. Marys; the Trans Canada Pipeline ransomware attack, which halted production for five days, had a ransom of $5M. Most small businesses couldn’t afford a fraction of this demand, and even after paying, data is usually damaged or stolen and needs to be recovered. And again, there is no guarantee that your data will be returned, even if criminals ask for a smaller amount.



The question that Toronto small businesses need to ask is whether they can afford such a cost - let alone even function without their data and core IT systems. Odds are, they can’t. Therefore, ransomware protection is mission-critical. In fact, it’s not as expensive as you may think.

Why Ransomware Prevention Provides Cost-Savings

Very often, small businesses have less ransomware protection because they have fewer resources than larger organizations - leaving them vulnerable to cyber threats. But here’s the thing: ransomware prevention is far more cost-effective than suffering a ransomware incident.

You don’t even need an entire cybersecurity division within your business to have strong ransomware protection in Toronto. Instead, you can work with a reputable Toronto-based cybersecurity and managed IT services provider like BWSI for ransomware prevention training, data backups, and more. All the while, you’re not paying for an entire in-house team for cyber support.

From here, it’s a matter of taking some proactive steps within your own company to protect your network from ransomware. Let’s look at five essential tips to jumpstart your Toronto ransomware protection program.

1. Get a ransomware risk assessment

Ransomware is highly intrusive and capable of working its way into any vulnerable area of your network. Therefore, you need to know where your IT vulnerabilities lie so you can prevent cyber infiltration. To do this, get an in-depth cybersecurity risk assessment from a cybersecurity specialist like BSWI. During your assessment, we go throughout your network to verify that security patches on key systems are all up-to-date and that there aren’t backdoors present that could leave you vulnerable. System updates and patches protect you from loopholes that hackers can exploit to infiltrate your system.

BSWI also conducts penetration testing, in which we try to break into key systems like Microsoft Outlook, and others, to see where potential vulnerabilities are. We’ll also look at your internal processes, including your password use, to see if you are jeopardizing your network internally. Besides helping you strengthen your network security, we’ll help you create actionable responses and procedures to deal with an incident should one occur.

2. Add Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to network security

All of your devices should have antivirus protections on them. This is pretty common knowledge, but it is not enough technology to protect you today. That's why we recommend Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) technology to increase your ransomware protection.

At BSWI we like to describe EDRs as an antivirus on steroids. The EDR is a system in place that actually monitors for alerts on suspicious activities that may indicate a hack or ransomware infiltration attempt. Once it detects something out of the ordinary, the EDR notifies you in real-time so you can actually take action and get it rectified. The EDR functions almost like a team within your system, patrolling and alerting you to suspicious cyber activity at all times.

3. Update your technology

Expired software or software with a known vulnerability must be addressed to avoid what’s known as a zero-day exploit. This refers to a cyberattack that takes advantage of a system flaw or gap in software or hardware. The Iran nuclear program got hacked for this very reason. Outdated or unpatched software makes it all the easier for ransomware to spread and encrypt more files unhindered. One way you can avoid this is by regularly updating your mission-critical systems to ensure their patches are up-to-date. EDR can even indicate when systems are missing patches.



However, if you do rely on systems like Windows 7, Windows Vista, or any old operating systems that are no longer being updated, you should consider migrating to new technology. Remember, as soon as these operating systems stop updating, they become extremely vulnerable.

4. Use multi-factor authentication

One of the cheapest and most effective forms of ransomware protection is using multi-factor authentication. This helps protect your usernames and passwords, as well as provides a first line of defense against scammers looking to infiltrate your network. If a cybercriminal is trying to implement malware using stolen credentials, multi-factor authentication helps prevent them from logging onto your systems to increase their potential damage by adding another identity validation check.



5. Use backups

Redundancy is a critical component of ransomware protection. The best insurance that your business can continue with minimal expense and interruption is that your data is constantly stored in a safe, separate system from your primary server. To this extent, backing up your data on the cloud is a critical first step towards resilience, but you can also employ additional methods like USB stick backups for certain files. However, simply having backup systems isn’t enough either.

You need to be running backups often to ensure your data remains current, and from there, it’s important to actually test that the data backups are working. You can't just trust that you have backups. You need to make sure they are functioning, because if something does happen and your backup is incomplete, you will have no alternative but to try and salvage data that may be partially intact at best.

Get the Ransomware Protection Your Toronto Business Needs

Cybercrime is only ramping up in Toronto, making more and more businesses vulnerable to ransomware, including you. While there are internal steps you can take right now to protect your company’s network, that alone is not enough. After all, you can only protect what you see on the surface level. That’s why BSWI starts all of our customers off with a cybersecurity vulnerability assessment.

From here, our team of seasoned Toronto ransomware specialists identifies critical vulnerabilities and then works with you to strengthen your network through both technology and internal processes. From providing ransomware training to your staff to helping you establish and maintain backups, our goal is to help you be resilient and proactive against ransomware. It all starts by calling us at 416 805 9296 to schedule your assessment.