Ransomware is a great threat to the trucking industry

Since the inception of the Internet, computer viruses have always been a problem. However, in the past decade, cybersecurity threats have reached a new level, and it's all due to one factor; financial incentive.

Making money from viruses used to be difficult

In the past, making money from a virus or malware used to be difficult for several reasons. The biggest reason was that they couldn't take money from the victims so easily when using traditional banks or financial instruments.

Traditional financial transactions are traceable. The sender and receivers are known to the financial institutions. Every bank or similar organization has to comply with their local rules and regulations, and one of the crucial requirements is to make sure they know who their customers are. If anyone receives some money by extortion via a bank, the authorities can trace the financial transaction back to them.

So, in the past, most malware just wanted to cause damage for one reason or another. The ones that aimed to make money would often focus on stealing your credit card or bank account details, which are difficult to obtain and abuse without getting caught.

Due to these difficulties, the most common source of income for these developers used to be the sales of a virus or malware to someone who wanted, for whatever reason, to cause some damage.

Introducing Cryptocurrencies

One of the biggest selling points of cryptocurrencies has always been the anonymity. This anonymity is often presented as a libertarian cause to stop the governments from tracking your actions and taking away your money in the form of taxation.

However, in reality, cryptocurrency has created a somewhat untraceable tool for the developers of malware to extort money from their victims directly.

Creation of Ransomware

The ability to receive money from your victims directly created a great opportunity for the creator of viruses and malware.

Instead of selling their software for cheap or stealing some confidential financial information and trying to steal some money while navigating the ever-increasing cybersecurity of financial institutions, they just force their victims to pay a ransom to get their data back.

What is Ransomware, and how do they work?

Ransomware is just a small yet sophisticated application. Once this software is downloaded to your computer, it encrypts and/or steals your files.

Encryption is a process that transforms some data into gibberish text that does not resemble its initial form. Returning this gibberish text back to its original and readable state is called decryption and requires a key. Decryption without a key, even though theoretically possible, is practically impossible. Encryption is the foundation of online security and privacy. So, the algorithms used for encryption are constantly improving.

So, when a ransomware encrypts the files on your computer, you would NEED to get the key to decrypt your files, which the operators of the ransomware sell to you happily for a payment in untraceable cryptocurrency.

Ransomware, once executed, goes through the files on your computer, finds the ones that may seem important to you, and encrypts them. As a result, you suddenly lose access to all important files on your computer. These files can be your databases, legal documents, receipts, images, communications, PDF files, Excel files, etc.

If you have a recent backup of your files, you can avoid paying the ransom. However, many individuals often don't take regular backups of their files, since when done manually, it is a time-consuming task.

Businesses like you are the biggest targets

While a ransomware attack can happen to anyone, businesses are by far the biggest targets.

A ransomware attack can bring down the entire operation of a business as they heavily depend on their data and documentation, and they have the financial capacity to pay a hefty ransom to get their data back.

So, businesses in critical industries such as energy, healthcare, and supply chain are the most common targets as their operation is not only about selling a product but has a direct impact on the day-to-day lives of the general population.

Many businesses control their own IT infrastructure by using local server setups or self-managed cloud instances. While very large companies may have the resources to improve their cybersecurity, most businesses do not have the capacity to make any meaningful changes to their software stack once installed.

OneTruck can minimize the risk of ransomware attacks for trucking companies

OneTruck is a fully cloud-based solution. You can destroy your computer entirely and continue your work on a new machine without losing any data. All your data is securely stored on the cloud, and you can access them from any device.

So, if your computer/laptop is affected by a ransomware attack, you can just grab a new machine and continue your work. As long as you safeguard your username and password, no one can access/alter/delete your data on OneTruck.

At OneTruck, we are very proactive in preventing any cybersecurity breaches, ransomware attacks, or otherwise. We are always trying to increase our security and fix any loopholes as soon as they are discovered. Unlike the traditional solutions, we can release a security update in a matter of minutes and hours rather than weeks or months.

However, just like any other private and government organization on the planet, we are still susceptible to cybersecurity threats. So, we have come up with ways to avoid or minimize any data loss in case of an attack.

You can try OneTruck right now by signing up here and start using it with only a computer and an internet connection.