PREVENT RANSOMWARE ATTACKS ON YOUR ORGANISATION
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Back in the day, keeping your organisation safe and secure was mostly about putting important files under lock and key. A security breach meant an actual physical intruder or theft.
Now, corporate security is far more complex. There are more types of threats to consider — ranging from phishing to digital eavesdropping to botnet attacks. Not only are there significantly more bad actors on the scene today, but they can infiltrate your company’s confidential documents and data much faster, from anywhere in the world. And they could have hundreds or even thousands of potential entry points through your team’s various vulnerable app accounts and devices.
To help your organisation stay secure, it’s important to understand the types of threats you’re up against. One of the primary cyberattacks against businesses today is ransomware. Here we’ll walk through the risks for your organisation and tips and resources you can implement to help reduce and prevent ransomware attacks.
WHO IS AT RISK OF RECEIVING RANSOMWARE ATTACKS?
You don’t have to be a mega-corporation with incredibly deep pockets to be a target for ransomware. No one is immune to ransomware attacks.
North and South American regions were the most impacted with 60% of the breach victims found in this area, while 31% were attributed to Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regions, and 9% to the Asia Pacific region. There’s no question that legal teams can be a particularly tempting target — not just because of the money, but because of the sensitive client and matter information they possess. The analysis found the most targeted sectors were Professional and Legal Services, followed by Construction.
IMPLEMENT RANSOMWARE PREVENTION STRATEGIES AT YOUR CORPORATION
There are many ways you can help prevent — and mitigate the effects of — ransomware attacks against your company. The more precautions you can implement, the better off you’ll be. Here are eight steps you can take.
PERFORM A RANSOMWARE RISK ASSESSMENT AND PLAN FOR DISASTER RECOVERY.
Make sure you have written data protection and disaster recovery plans in place. It’s also important to share them widely in your organisation so that everyone understands their role in protecting your data. Ensure buy-in from top leadership because this is a business decision, not just an IT decision. Regular phishing tests are very effective tools to raise awareness and vigilance.
1. Use multifactor authentication and robust password management.
Ransomware attacks often start with phishing, where the attacker will gain access to the network by stealing a legitimate user’s password. Reduce the risk of phishing by using both multifactor authentication (MFA) and password management tools.
MFA requires at least two forms of verification for a user to gain entry to the system. Password management tools can enforce sufficiently complex passwords, regular password updates, and other security best practices that will limit opportunities for bad actors to access the system.
2. Ensure your software and security patches are current across all applications.
Ransomware protection isn’t a one-and-done activity. Threats evolve rapidly to get ahead of new security measures, and new vulnerabilities will open up with shifting user habits and as you adopt new hardware and software. It’s important to keep your apps updated so you’re protected against the latest threats and vulnerabilities.
3. Drive adoption of preventive software tools.
Follow a rigorous IT process for installing antivirus software, email filtering features, and antivirus applications and be sure to keep them up to date. Even the most powerful tools are no good if your people don’t adopt them — so train, train, train. And implement measures that are “invisible” and seamless for users.
4. Perform frequent system wide backups.
There are business continuity software platforms that can help you recover from a ransomware attack by restoring your systems to the last known safe state before the attack took place. The best ones allow flexible physical and virtual restoration.
5. Keep your backups physically separate.
If your backup files are accessible from your daily operating platform, chances increase that they can become infected when your endpoints “phone home” to upload new versions. Separate storage appliances are widely available at a variety of price points.
6. Provide phishing training to help your team avoid attacks.
Your team members might not be fooled by a classic scam email, but phishing and other cyber attacks are growing far more sophisticated. Provide ongoing security awareness training that covers common phishing techniques so your team can stay savvy to recognize potential threats and know what to do when they encounter one.
HOW NETDOCUMENTS CAN HELP
The NetDocuments platform is designed to help you gain control of your documents, emails, and discussions. While your data is within our platform, our award-winning security provides a flexible and robust framework that can help protect you from ransomware attacks. Schedule a demo today to learn more!
This article was sponsored by NetDocuments. Find out more here.
