With businesses having established a more remote and online presence during the ongoing pandemic, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of ransomware attacks. Business email compromise, phishing attacks and scams have greatly impacted a large number of organizations.
Ransomware can find its way into your business through compromised websites and suspicious email attachments. This ransomware is a form of social engineering that lures users into infecting their devices. This is where cybersecurity education becomes key for business employees to prevent hacking of sensitive data through ransomware attacks.
Key Steps Businesses Can Take to Prevent Ransomware Attacks
1.Are you updated?
A dedicated team of developers keeps a close eye on their OS or Software’s vulnerabilities and dispatches effective protective updates. Ensure all the applications, and operating systems on your network have the latest security patches installed. WannaCry exploited a flaw in Windows XP, so stay ahead by leveraging auto-update features.
2.Multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication protects against 99.9% of daily attacks. Protect your intellectual property in the collaborative working environment, where employees frequently interact with external users. Upgrade your endpoint security with single sign-on and dynamic access policies.
3.Are your employees aware?
Human beings play an important role in your defense strategy. Are your employees aware of techniques used by hackers to breach the system? The emails delivering ransomware are cunningly crafted to look like legitimate messages. Awareness leads to avoidance of clicking on links and attachments in email. Keep them trained regularly about the ongoing email spam campaigns that may affect them. Enroll the entire organization in the cybersecurity defensive game.
4.Restrict Administrative Rights
A network with minimal endpoints that have local administration rights on the devices is best practice to keep devices safe, minimizing the chances that users can invite an infection by installing nefarious software.
5.Test Your System
Run “penetration tests” against your network every year. This helps to take stock of what strategies worked and where security needs to get tighter.
6.Anti-Virus and Network Monitoring
Anti-Virus will help protect you from known variants of ransomware. Managed network monitoring keeps a close eye on the traffic, what’s being downloaded, and stops upcoming threats.
7.Group Policy Object Restrictions
They provide granular control over the execution of files that is crucial in ensuring file attachments cannot run. This allows businesses to closely monitor and filter any malicious attack that might come their way.
8.A Habit of Secure Sites
When visiting unfamiliar websites, always ensure it is a secure site. When you hover the mouse over the URL, it should begin with “HTTPS.” You can read more about cybersecurity tips and how to tell if a website is safe.
9.Diversified Backup Strategy
Diversify your backup strategy. In the event of a crash, fire, theft or flood, ensure your critical operations can be resumed within hours and that data is still accessible from anywhere by your team. Boost the effectiveness of your continuity efforts by spreading out your digital assets. Keep multiple backup files in different locations. A key component to prepare for a ransomware attack is developing a robust backup strategy. Let’s get prepared.
10.Don’t Pay
Yes, you heard us right, in a situation where your data is held for ransom…Don’t Pay! Quite frankly, are you sure that your data will be restored, even after paying? Your very payment will enable better ransomware to be developed. What if your network is targeted again in the future? Consider protecting your organization with Cyber Liability insurance.
Technical Action Group – Your Protection Against Ransomware
Contact Technical Action Group to help your business prevent ransomware attacks and help make your systems more secure. Call us at 416-489-6312 today to learn more about how we can save your business and data from growing threats.
