QuickBooks Cloud Hosting Firm iNSYNQ Hit In Ransomware Attack (krebsonsecurity.com) 30
Cloud hosting provider iNSYNQ says it was hit with a ransomware attack that shut down its network and left customers unable to access their accounting data for the past three days. "Unfortunately for iNSYNQ, the company appears to be turning a deaf ear to the increasingly anxious cries from its users for more information about the incident," reports Krebs On Security." From the report: Gig Harbor, Wash.-based iNSYNQ specializes in providing cloud-based QuickBooks accounting software and services. In a statement posted to its status page, iNSYNQ said it experienced a ransomware attack on July 16, and took its network offline in a bid to contain the spread of the malware. "The attack impacted data belonging to certain iNSYNQ clients, rendering such data inaccessible,"; the company said. "As soon as iNSYNQ discovered the attack, iNSYNQ took steps to contain it. This included turning off some servers in the iNSYNQ environment." iNSYNQ said it has engaged outside cybersecurity assistance and to determine whether any customer data was accessed without authorization, but that so far it has no estimate for when those files might be available again to customers.
Older offline versions of course unaffected. (Score:3)
My smallbusinessbro still uses 2012 which is ample for his needs.
He keeps and frequently restores from multiple backups so no problem there. I told him a backup is worthless if you can't restore from bare metal after a hurricane (we both experienced Hugo) destroys your business, and he listened.
The cloud is great until you can't access it.
We used iNSYNQ for a year (Score:5, Insightful)
They hosted a non-QuickBooks accounting system for us. They were helpful and did a good job.
I moved our accounting system in-house. Thank God! Plus, everything runs a lot faster on a 100% local network. We make weekly back-ups to offline storage.
For small businesses, locally run accounting software is no longer an option. All the providers are forcing you to a cloud solution. My default position is; Anything I upload to the cloud will be view/sold/hacked/mis-used. If you don't want to share it, don't upload it.
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Put your DNS on a R-Pi 4, but make sure to install a fan!
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Make your own backups from the cloud (Score:2)
I do some consulting for SMEs. In many cases, a cloud solution is by far their best option. HOWEVER, one point I emphasize is that they must make their own backups. Regularly download the data from the cloud and put it on their own (offsite) backup. One simply cannot rely on a cloud provider - they may go bankrupt, they may be hit by a ransomware attack, they may arbitrarily change their terms-and-conditions. If a cloud service does not provide a useful way to export your data, then you need to find a diffe
The word from the Backstreet Boys (Score:1)
When asked, a spokesperson for Backstreet Boys responded: "We know better than to click on e-mail attachments. Mostly because some of our aging fans still keep sending explicit photos, and the sagging is starting to get real."
I really see only one solution ... (Score:3)
... and that's air-gap backups.
In my career, backup was my number-one nightmare. Intrusion was a close second.
When I worked for law firms, in addition to being placed in a position of trust anyway, I was granted permission to take the backup home with me every night. The backup media was tape at first and we embraced EHD later.
When I came in to work each morning, I removed last night's media and put it in my brief case. I would take out the backup I'd taken home and put it in the row of other night's backup, rotating 7 days at one place and 30 at another.
Interestingly, management at the one site did not want to retain more than 7 days information, knowing those tapes could be discoverable in litigation. The other site didn't care about that and the managing partner was more concerned about being able to retrieve client data going back 30 days.
The point is: The backups were disconnected and retained a week or more.
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Other solutions I've read about are not robust enough. For small to medium firms, the ratio of prevention techniques vs disposable income made those solutions unrealistic.
I never had a ransomware attack, but the firm I retired from got hit about three weeks after I left. I asked the propellerhead who replaced me to share the experience. I would have peed down both legs.
He did not change backup EHD out at all. He had an appliance that received changes across the network and shipped that data to the cloud.
Because the ransomware rode shares, every goddam server got hit and the cloud architect recognized the encryption as a massive change in all those files and duplicated them on the appliance. The appliance wrote all the changes to the cloud.
The cloud did not have a backup because the asshat IT guy recommended the lowest tier pricing.
The firm did not pay the ransom and rebuilt from scratch and they never did get things straight after three years now.
They did, however, buy ransomware insurance.
I'm glad none of that happened on my watch, but I would have done a much better job of recovering.
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Way too complicated.
Offsite backup is simple, affordable, and expeditious.
Why all the other ineffective fantasies?
50% of business fail after a cyberattack (Score:4, Informative)
With QuickBooks having about 80% market share among small business, that means many businesses will fail pretty soon.
The chances of getting their data back is pretty much zero, once the attacker knew who they were dealing with they pretty much jacked up the price astronomically. Hopefully people get a backup or learn their lesson.
Append-only file systems (Score:1)
Any dumb uneducated cunt who does not use append-only file systems exclusively deserve to suffer all the consequences.