Organisations are becoming a popular target for ransomware attacks. This is when cybercriminals take over your computer or device, steal your data and demand a ransom. This can cost between hundreds to thousands of pounds. Ransomware infiltrates networks and servers which leads to the loss of important information and data.
With a ransomware attack, organisations can be swayed to paying the ransom as it’s the easiest and quickest way to essentially ‘get back to work’. However, this is on the assumption the organisation only has one copy of the data that was infiltrated. If there are backups, they can wipe the hacked device and rebuild their systems somewhere else. subsequently, this will take some time, maybe a few hours or days but it’s much cheaper than succumbing to the ransom demand.
Here are 5 ways your business can avoid ransomware:
1. Educate your employees
Firstly, your employees should serve as a first-line defense against any online threats. They should help stop any malware from infiltrating the organisations’ servers. Having employees that are educated and trained about warning signs, safe practices, and quick responses can support your business quite a lot in preventing threats.
2. Protect your backups
Most businesses have backups that are usually just saved in the same folder, on another local folder, or on a network-connected file server. But are those backups protected? This will help if the file goes missing or becomes corrupted but it certainly won’t protect you from ransomware.
For instance, a safe way to protect your backup is by moving them off-site from primary systems and to a different location. In addition, systems should be configured so that if an attack occurs your data center can’t propagate to your backup systems in the cloud. This can include firewall rules, changing operating systems, and storage protocols.
3. Manage the use of privileged accounts
In an effort to restrict any exposure to ransomware, businesses should restrict users’ ability to install and run software applications on network devices.
4. Establish a recovery time objective
This is a key aspect of any business continuity plan. RTO (recovery time objective) refers to how long it takes for a product/service to start working again after a disruption. Depending on how much data is infected, it can take days to recover. Consequently, networks on local folders can get encrypted by ransomware also, unless they are unplugged. At PCW we offer secure cloud backups that are off-site for extra security.
5. Regularly test your recovery process
It’s good practice to regularly test your recovery process and monitor your backups. This helps ensure that any data backed up is still protected and in good condition. For instance, the last thing any business would want is to wipe its systems after a ransomware attack only to find that there’s a problem with the restore process or the backup data is corrupted. All PCW Solutions backups are monitored on a daily basis and regularly tested.
In conclusion, protection against ransomware is very important for any business. PCW Solutions can help with any questions relating to cybersecurity and business resilience and cloud backups.
In addition, we can discuss different strategies and what to take into account when planing your cybersecurity defenses, such as:
- Basic risk assessments
- Points to consider around prevention and detection
- In-depth defense approach
Read our last article on Microsoft Servers Exploited by Several Cyberattackers