US Law Enforcement Took Down a Hosting Company Used by Ransomware Groups. Here Is What to Check on Your End.
Law enforcement seized a hosting company called Virtualine because it was widely used by ransomware groups and other cybercriminals. I find this fascinating. If you run a hosting platform that is being used for criminal activity, apparently they will come and take you down. Good.
Why This Is Actually a Good Thing
We do not want these companies hosting and distributing the tools that cause everybody headaches. Taking Virtualine offline makes it harder for these groups to keep their operations running. That is a win.
But here is the practical problem. If you happen to be hosting some data with a less-than-legit provider, and that provider gets seized, you are kind of out of business. Not because you did anything wrong, but because your stuff was sitting on their servers when the feds showed up.
The One Thing You Should Do After Reading This
Take a look at where your data is hosted. Make sure you are using legitimate companies. That is really the whole takeaway. It is not complicated, but a lot of small businesses just never think about it. They signed up for whatever was cheap or convenient years ago and never looked back.
If you are not sure who is actually hosting your data, your website, your backups, or any cloud services your business depends on, that is worth a five-minute conversation with your IT provider. Give us a call and we will sort it out with you.
Questions about how this affects your setup? Schedule a free IT consultation and we’ll walk through it with you.
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