Here’s a longer VERY IMPORTANT video (around 5 minutes) to help keep your business afloat.  

If you prefer to read it, keep going.  

Today’s video is my real life example from earlier this week where I was hacked. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for having Cyber Insurance… it made the entire process so much easier and gave me so much PEACE of MIND. (Sound familiar).  

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I woke up Monday morning, went down to my email, and the first email I noticed, which ironically was an email from me to me (I didn’t send it though) was kim@9rok.com.au… YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED.  

Kind of one of those nightmares that you think, “it won’t happen to me”, but it did. 

Anywhere, so I read this email, it wasn’t very nice.  

And it was saying “for the last six months we’ve put a Trojan, a virus, into your computer, and we’ve been tracking everything you’ve been doing.  

We’ve got access to all your passwords, all your social media networks, everywhere and anywhere you’ve got contacts, details… we’ve got access to them all.” 

And then a couple of other bits and pieces.  

“And by the way, we think $900 to not use these files in a bad way would be a reasonable amount to ask.”  

Now, normally I’d be freaking out.  

I mean I’m a little bit freaking out, but I’m not completely panicked.  

I’ll tell you why.  

I’ve got Cyber Insurance.  

And I did a video on Cyber Insurance a couple of months ago where I got my sister, who’s an expert … she’s an expert in this space, to talk about the benefits of Cyber Insurance for any business where you use anything online where you’ve got login details and passwords that are online. 

Which to be honest is most of us.  

And talking about why you need Cyber Insurance. 

Here’s the reason why.  

Because, there’s a hotline that I’ve got through my Cyber Insurance policy that I was able to ring, and within five minutes… so I rang them and they triaged it.  

Then within five minutes a forensic engineer, kind of a fancy title, rang me.  

And we walked through what it was.  

And it wasn’t a ransom attack or anything like that, it was a virus that’s going around at the moment.  

Albeit a really nasty virus too, because it certainly can debilitate many businesses. 

And I just caught up with an ex client last week, and I’d sent an email confirming the meeting in the morning and never heard back.. and thought that was odd.  

They’d also been hacked.  

So, it happens.  

But anyway, with this hotline, this forensic engineer was able to explain some of the things that I can do, one of them being… put that multi-factor, or two factor authentication on everything that you possibly can.  

So, that’s where, when you try to log in to something, it’ll then send a verification code either to an external authenticator App, or to your mobile device. 

He did say try and use an external authenticator App, which you can download online.  

Google’s got one too.  

He said try and do that too, because the hackers are so good now they can even hack phone numbers, and transfer your phone number to a different device, so that they can then get the code.  

But at least having it is an extra layer of security. 

And here’s the thing, right.  

On Friday, I use Stripe for all my payments and that online.  

And I got sent an SMS with my Stripe verification code.  

I wasn’t on Stripe, I wasn’t anywhere near Stripe.  

And I thought hmm, that’s odd.  

That means someone’s trying to login to my Stripe account.  

Then I get this “you have been hacked” email.  

It’s serious. 

It’s real.  

I’m lucky that I’ve actually got my Cyber Insurance.  

So if anything did go pear shaped, or ended up a lot worse than it just being a virus that we can fix and clean, I know I’m covered. 

So, firstly, if you don’t have Cyber Insurance, it’s critical that if you’re running a business with anything online that you do for the peace of mind.  

Secondly, I spoke to my IT people, and they’ve got a big security list of how you can keep yourself safe.  

And I used to think because I use all Apple devices that I was reasonably safe.  

They were always harder to penetrate from a virus and a hacking perspective.  

He said “no, not now”.  

Even mobile devices are not safe. 

And what he was saying that if you don’t have all these extra layers of security in place, then you’re only protected about 20%, even if you’ve got the proper malware and security systems in order.  

But he also said that if you do have the securities and all the checks and balance and double verification on everything, he said you’re still only 78% safe. 

Now, I know you’re in numbers, I know 78% safe is better than 20% safe.  

So, anyway, I’ve got them engaged to have a look at everything and put those 10 steps in place, and get all my extra verification in place.  

The reason I’m sharing this is I didn’t think it would happen to me.  

Honestly, why me?  

I’m not rich and famous.  

I’m not out there in the public eye being exposed, where people would use me as a target.  

I’m just a regular person, who runs a business, that has online access to certain things. 

So, if that’s you as well, and you don’t want to get hacked, then firstly make sure that you do have Cyber Insurance.  

And secondly, that wherever you can put in that extra verification and security, do it.  

And if you’ve got an IT department, or you’ve got access to IT support, see what other things they can suggest to really protect you.  

It’s not worth it.  

I don’t know about you, but gee, I’d hate to not have any of my business online.  

It would hurt. 

Anyway, whatever you do with that, Make It Count.

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