[BreachExchange] How Businesses Can Defend Ransomware Attack

[Audrey McNeil]

http://blogs.systweak.com/2017/01/how-businesses-can-
defend-ransomware-attack/

Not a day goes by when we don’t see a barrage of ransomware related
headlines!

The threat of ransomware is has gripped everyone—it’s scary and growing at
a rapid rate.  Sadly, ransomware is becoming an increasingly popular way
for malware authors to extort money from companies and individuals alike.
There are a variety of tactics taken in use by the Cyber villains, but
gradually they all initiate from targeting the software vulnerability of a
system. Cyber thieves are abandoning their old ways of making money- i.e.
stealing credit card numbers and bank account credentials—and instead
turning to ransomware.

The threat presented by ransomware is real. No business or individual is
immune from a potential ransomware attack.

5 Ways to Avoid Ransomware crisis:

The best, the absolute best way for a company to protect itself from
ransomware is to teach its employees about healthy cybersecurity practices.
We have listed down a few ways, to gain some insight into how today’s
companies are protecting themselves and defending against evolving
ransomware attacks:

Backup Essential Data

The single biggest thing that will defeat ransomware is regular data files
backup. This is so far the most effective measure against ransomware
attacks. There are a ton of options here, from backing up to cloud service
providers to local storage devices or even network attached drives. The
most effective backup though would be secure cloud backups considering
local networks and drives too can be easily infected.

Strong and Secure Antivirus  Suite

Make sure that an up-to-date antivirus is installed on all your Systems.
Additionally, it’s best to have a multi-faceted security solution that
employs additional protective technologies such as heuristics, firewalls
and so on.

Patching

Patching is a standard security procedure for preventing malicious software
from infecting your system. Systems are commonly exploited through a third
party software such as Java, Flash, Adobe, etc. Developers of all such
software often ‘patch up’ vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malware.
It is therefore essential to keep updating installed programs on your
System to ensure the vulnerabilities are patched.

Say no to Suspicious emails and links

Emails have always been hacker’s all-time favorite bait. You’ll often see
that the subject of such emails is quite catchy which lures the individual
to certainly tap on it. More often than not, such emails carry malicious
attachment or instruct you to click on a URL where malware surreptitiously
crawl into your machine.

Disconnect Wi-Fi when not in use

Open Wi-Fi networks are often found to be the primary source of how
malicious content swiftly slips and breaks through organization’s
protective firewall. While in premises, make a practice to instantly
disconnect from the Wi-Fi network when not in use to prevent any potential
threat.

Don’t Ever Pay the Ransom!

Even if you are attacked by a ransomware, don’t ever think of paying the
ransom amount at any cost. Not only does that not guarantee you getting
your files back, but it also motivates these hackers to continue attacking
businesses everywhere. Also, there is no guarantee you won’t be attacked by
ransomware again, so you could end up paying month in – month out, never
getting your files back.

Always remember, by paying criminals, you’re giving them an incentive and
the means to develop better ransomware in future. So don’t let them wreck
our lives!
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