A good, solid plan for protection against ransomware can save your business time and money in the unfortunate event of an attack – but it’s absolutely critical to plan ahead. Let’s run down what your business can do to protect itself against ransomware.
Ransomware is one of the biggest concerns facing businesses today, and it has massive implications for information security and data protection – not to mention the potential cost. Ransomware is a type of malware that infects systems and blocks access to data stored on drives or servers by encrypting it, and demanding a hefty fee for the decryption key. If you don’t have a fully up-to-date backup of your data, you have two choices – pay the ransom, or lose your data. So, as you can imagine, protection from ransomware is crucial. You might have heard the term ‘ransomware’ in the news recently following the WannaCry attack back in early May this year, that affected 74 countries including the UK, where NHS England was badly hit. This ransomware exploited weaknesses in the Windows XP operating system, and the NHS were utterly unprepared for it. The inability to access critical data, or a threat by a hacker to leak confidential information, can severely damage a business; both in terms of profit and reputation. So how can you effectively protect your business from a ransomware attack?
The most obvious precaution you can take is to always have a comprehensive backup of your businesses’ data. Backing up is, by far, the best form of ransomware protection. Identify any crucial data that your business needs to operate day to day, and any data which could damage your reputation if it gets into the wrong hands. If you have data that changes regularly during the day, you should perform daily backups, such as disk mirroring, to ensure the most up to date backup is always available.
A business needs to stop ransomware in its tracks, and that involves buying software specifically designed to protect you from the threat of ransomware. Barracuda offers a product called Advanced Threat Protection, and aims to stop threats that evade traditional detection techniques. Because modern ransomware is becoming more and more sophisticated, they’re starting to learn to evade traditional detection techniques. Barracuda Advanced Threat Protection analyses traffic across the main areas of entry and aims to stop ransomware in its tracks.
Perhaps one of the most effective tools in your businesses’ arsenal against ransomware is education. Teaching employees about ransomware, the rise of it, the risks it poses, and how it enters systems, can be vital. The major ‘threat vectors’ are email, web browsing, web applications and remote users. One of the most common entry points for ransomware is email attachments, which any employee could easily open by mistake. Providing training and awareness courses for your employees is absolutely vital.
