Repairers confident they’re protected against the threat of ransomware might want to double-check for flaws in their assumptions and IT setup, based on a Monday CIECAst.
David Willett, value creation executive at ProSight Specialty Insurance, and Collision Advice CEO Mike Anderson both told the webinar audience they’d heard of multiple collision repairers who fell victim to ransomware. Ransomware attacks can bar access to one’s files and demand the victim pay to get them back. Failure to pay by a specific deadline might lead to the files lost forever.
Willett said repairers are providing separate Wi-Fi networks for customers and shop operations — a cybersecurity best practice that hadn’t always been as commonplace in the recent past.
But the wall between the two might be porous in practice.
Willett recalled visiting one shop he described as diligent on cybersecurity measures and asking an employee about their personal device’s Internet connection. Employee personal devices like smartphones should be on a separate Wi-Fi network than the shop’s official one, according to Willett.
The employee had connected the personal device to the shop’s Wi-Fi. The…
