Even small businesses such as funeral homes are not immune to attacks from cyberthieves.
One New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association member firm was recently the victim of a ransomware attack, where the devices or information of a business is held hostage until a payment is extracted. Business owners may not even know their devices have been compromised, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“You usually discover [the attack] when you can no longer access your data or you see computer messages letting you know about the attack and demanding ransom payments,” the FBI stated on its website.
The threat to businesses can be significant, according to IBM. Ransomware attacks account for more than 17 percent of cyberattacks, IBM says. and 78 percent of 1,350 businesses worldwide surveyed in 2022 reported a successful ransomware attack, according to a survey conducted by Barracuda, a cybersecurity company. More than a quarter of those companies said they felt unprepared to deal with a ransomware attack, the Barracuda survey found.
How do these cyberthieves access your devices and information?
Barracuda found that 69 percent of ransomware attacks began with a phishing email. An employee clicks on a link, advertisement or attachment in the email, allowing malware to be downloaded to the device or server and giving thieves access.
“Once the code is loaded on a computer, it will lock access to the computer itself or data and files stored there,” the FBI stated. “More menacing versions can encrypt files and folders on local drives, attached drives and even networked computers.”
The History of Ransomware
Ransomware attacks can be traced to a World Health Organization’s AIDS conference in Stockholm in 1989 when thousands of floppy discs were distributed to participants in the forum.
Eddy Willems, who was working for an insurance company in Belgium at the time, inserted the disc, believing it contained medical data, according to a CNN story. Instead, days later, his device was locked and he received a message: Send $189 to a post office box in Panama to release the data. Willems didn’t comply and instead figured out a way to reverse the attack.
Willems wasn’t the only victim of that attack, but he was the one who figured out how to counter the effort. Companies began to call him for help, CNN reported. Eventually, the post office box was traced back to Joseph Popp, an AIDS researcher who was arrested and charged with blackmail, CNN wrote. Popp is considered the father of ransomware attacks.
“The incident created a lot of damage back in those days. People lost a lot of work. It was not a marginal thing–it was a big thing, even then,” Willems told CNN.
As technology has become more sophisticated, the attacks have grown more advanced as well, and the ransoms have increased. A Bright Defense survey concluded that the median ransom demand in the United States was $2 million in 2025 and the median payment was $1.4 million.
How to Avoid an Attack
As the Barracuda study indicated, many companies are not prepared to deal with a ransomware attack, but one of the most important tools for avoiding an attack is awareness.
“The best way to avoid being exposed to ransomware–or any type of malware–is to be a cautious and conscientious device user,” says the FBI. “Malware distributors have gotten increasingly savvy, and you need to be careful about what you download and click on.”
By increasing your vigilance, you can spot potential scams before they become an attack on your devices and information. When receiving an email with an attachment, make sure the sender is a trusted contact before opening. This step is complicated the advent of spoofing, where email addresses are slightly altered to appear legitimate. For example, joejones@aol.com, an email address for trusted contact Joe Jones would be spoofed to joejoness@aol.net. Checking address legitimacy can save you from not only a ransomware attack but also from a Business Email Compromise.
Business owners also would be wise to adopt two-factor authentication for logging in to company systems.
Other tips provided by the FBI are:
- Keep operating systems, software and applications current and up to date.
- Make sure anti-virus and anti-malware solutions are set to automatically update and run regular scans.
- Back up data regularly and double-check that those backups were completed.
- Secure your backups. Make sure they are not connected to the computers and networks they are backing up.
- Create a continuity plan in case your business or organization is the victim of a ransomware attack.
What to Do if You’re a Victim
If you become a victim of a ransomware attack, the FBI recommends that you do not pay your attacker.
“Paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back,” the FBI states. “It also encourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity.”
IBM suggests that you photograph the ransom note with a separate device such as a smartphone, which will help with filing a police report. The FBI urges victims to contact the local bureau field office or file a report at ic3.gov.
Disconnecting your system’s ethernet, along with disabling WiFi and Bluetooth, can help minimize the spread of the malware. IBM also recommends turning off automatic tasks such as autodelete of files, which can hamper any investigations into the crime. Also recommended is backing up your data remotely rather than within the system, so recovery of information is easier.
The FBI also provides more tips and information on ransomware here.