Imagine that a hacker not only successfully gained access to your data, but actually locked it so that you can no longer access it yourself. And in order to regain control over your own information, they have demanded that you pay a “ransom”!

Unfortunately, this situation does indeed occur, and businesses are often a primary target for two main reasons:

  1. Due to the risks to customers and potential fallout, a business is more motivated to do anything necessary to regain control of their data
  2. A business is seen as a better target, financially speaking, since many private individuals might not have the funds necessary to pay a ransom

Obviously, a comprehensive network security strategy – and regularly updating it – is the best way to prevent ransomware and similar attacks.

In particular, it is important to understand how a ransomware attack works: Once an attacker gains access to your network, they establish a command-and-control channel with one or more external servers so that they can send commands to your infected system. They can then move laterally through the network and attack one system at a time. The goal is to encrypt as much data as possible, to inflict maximum damage and motivate the victim to pay the “ransom” for a decryption key to their own files.

Therefore, interrupting the life cycle of the attack is key to minimizing the damage and stopping hackers in their tracks. Employment of these five steps will create comprehensive protection against ransomware attacks:

  • Maintain traffic awareness
  • Disable delivery of the attack through training on phishing, plus use of tools that block malicious files and links
  • Prevent installation of ransomware with modern endpoint security tools
  • Implement a zero-trust security strategy to prevent lateral movement
  • Quickly detect and repel attacks with automation tools

If you have questions about any of these security steps, call us at 888-RING-MY-TECH for more information. We can help you assess your network’s potential vulnerabilities, and install the necessary security protocol to prevent ransomware and other types of malicious attacks.