Abhishek The Risks Of Ransomware And How To Protect Your Business. Ransomware attacks are on the rise and every day, there are thousands of attempted ransomware infections. Most of these attacks fail thanks to ransomware defences and the vigilance of cybersecurity experts,
but the few that are successful can cause serious damage to your business.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts your data, rendering it unusable.
It will then ask you to pay a ransom (normally using a cryptocurrency) in order to regain access to your files. This ransom demand sometimes has a time limit,
with an additional threat to either delete or leak the encrypted data if the ransom is not paid by the deadline.
In recent years, ransomware has gone from being an annoyance to major risk, and modern ransomware has become incredibly advanced. There even dedicate ransomware manufacturers illicitly supplying criminals with the latest tools to help them scam businesses and operating their own helpdesks. Provide ransomware support. Manhattan will soon be home to the first ransomware defence centre in the US to combat the rise of attacks on businesses in New York. Managed IT support providers have reported that ransomware is also the number one concern for their clients.
Why Is Ransomware Harmful To Businesses?
Ransomware can seriously affect a business’s ability to continue working. If vital data is inaccessible, then even the simplest tasks can become difficult to organize and track. When the 2017 WannaCry ransomware infection occurred,
some hospitals force to cancel surgeries and cancer treatments as they were unable to access patient records.
If the attacker follows through on their threat to leak the encrypted data,
this could have serious repercussions on your business’s reputation. And you could face a regulatory fine under data protection legislation if a regulator determines you did not sufficiently protect your customers’ personal information.
How Can A Business Protect Itself Against Ransomware
It is important to remember that you will not be protecting your business against a single piece of ransomware, but against ransomware as a whole. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and the techniques. And technologies used by cybercriminals changes regularly. For this reason, partnering with a managed IT support services provider who specialises in cybersecurity will give you the best chance of fully protecting your network. Alternatively,
if you have your own on-site IT support service,
they can help implement these protections for you. Effective ransomware prevention includes:
Ransomware Protection Software
This software helps to detect ransomware by comparing new pieces of software on your machine to a list of known ransomware. The latest ransomware protection software clou-base,
so it syncs its list of known threats multiple times a day to catch even newly discovered pieces of ransomware.
AI-Drive Ransomware Detection
You can still protect your network against new and undiscovered pieces of ransomware using AI-driven ransomware protection. While every piece of ransomware is different, the ways in which they try to access your systems and interact with your network tend to be similar. By using AI to detect suspicious software behaviour,
you can even catch new pieces of ransomware.
Be Aware Of Phishing Emails
Email is still the number one attack vector for ransomware. You should make sure that your entire team is aware of how to spot phishing emails that are trying to trick them into downloading ransomware. Learn the tell-tale signs on phishing emails and if possible. use an advanced email filter like Mimecast or Barracuda which let you open suspicious emails. and attachments in a virtual environment in the cloud rather than on your own network.
Have Off-Premises Backups Of Your Data
Business-critical data should always be backed up. It is important that these data backups are housed off-premises. Because ransomware can spread,
storing backups on your network not advise. As this can lead to the backups becoming encrypted too.
Consider using a cloud-computing service like Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure to store your data backups.
You can then recover these backups and continue working in the cloud until your machines are cleared of ransomware.
We hope this has been a useful overview of the risks of ransomware and some of the ways that businesses are keeping themselves safe. Ransomware is truly too big a threat to ignore. And if you’re not already using one,
it would be a good idea to contact a provider of managed IT support. New York businesses aren’t the only ones at risk,
any business, anywhere, could be hit by ransomware at any time.
