It only takes seconds for a regular day at your company to turn into a disaster. This is especially true regarding your company’s cybersecurity. Does your company take enterprise ransomware protection seriously?
The average data breach costs businesses approximately $4.4 million per incident. This can be impossible for most companies to recover from if they don’t have the resources to establish a robust cybersecurity plan.
Ransomware is one of the largest threats to organizations across nearly every industry. A single ransomware attack can wreak havoc on companies of all sizes.
Investing in enterprise ransomware protection is crucial for handling potential security threats, but not everyone knows when to start. Let’s explore the key information you should know.
How Ransomware Functions
This is a type of malicious software that hackers use to target companies with sensitive information. The application will encrypt the affected data and make it possible for users to access it without the required decryption key. As the name implies, this malware essentially holds this information for ransom.
The hacker will demand the victim pay a fee in cryptocurrency in exchange for access to their data. Crypto is the chosen method due to it being more private. If the victim doesn’t meet the hacker’s demands, the ransom will often increase.
Eventually, the hacker will leave the data encrypted permanently. For many companies, this can be catastrophic. The FBI recommends against paying the ransom, and this is why enterprise ransomware protection is important to implement for your company.
There’s no guarantee you’ll regain access to your data, and the money you pay will be used to facilitate future attacks. There’s also a chance you’ll suffer from additional ransomware attacks, as well.
Many victims don’t properly clean their systems of the malicious software. This creates the opportunity for future incidents to arise.
How Enterprise Ransomware Protection Works
There are various strategies you can use to defend against ransomware, and the right enterprise ransomware protection for you will depend on certain factors. One of the most notable is your company’s overall level of risk. In general, businesses in lucrative industries like tech, healthcare, and finance are at higher risk than others.
Company size also plays a role, but some people wrongfully assume small companies are safe. Small businesses often don’t have the resources to defend against ransomware attacks.
Pre-Downloading
It can be difficult to test ransomware without pre-downloading it. This helps prevent the malware from reaching its target endpoint. This could dictate whether your network stays protected.
Threat Intelligence
Reputable enterprise ransomware protection methods will use threat intelligence feeds to identify ransomware. In some cases, this strategy can quickly discern the malware. Even if there isn’t abundant information, it’s still possible to identify that the software is ransomware.
Sandbox
To further test the software, you can run it in a sandbox environment. This is an isolated instance, separate from sensitive information on the device. Once ransomware detection occurs, its execution can be blocked.
Decoy Files
Planting decoy files can gauge how the malware will interact with them. If ransomware is present, it will quickly encrypt them. This allows you to identify the encryption methods it uses.
The same can be said about how the hacker plans to interact with the victim. They might allow the user to pay in various types of cryptocurrency, for example.
This research helps better understand how hackers think and can help create better defenses in the future. After your enterprise ransomware protection software detects encryption, it can kill the ransomware application.
Benefits of Enterprise Ransomware Protection
There’s no shortage of benefits that enterprise ransomware protection offers. Understanding these will help you leverage them to the fullest. Listed below are some of the most notable.
Risk Mitigation
As you might expect, one of the most substantial benefits of enterprise ransomware protection is risk mitigation. With lower levels of risk, you can focus on other aspects of your company. Keep in mind that it’s impossible to achieve 100% protection against ransomware.
There’s always a chance something will slip through the cracks. Maximizing your protection will make your life much easier, though. Dealing with one incident every few years is far more manageable than handling an attack every few months.
Business Continuity
Ransomware can easily lead to extensive downtime. Not only does this cause a loss in revenue, it can also harm your company’s reputation. Safeguarding against ransomware helps maintain your business continuity and keeps your operations running smoothly
Lower Costs
Even a single incident can cost your organization substantial time and resources. You can substantially lower your costs by keeping your company protected. Dealing with a ransomware attack can quickly become unaffordable.
Some companies make the mistake of foregoing enterprise ransomware protection due to the expense. Keeping your business safe offsets the cost of investing in protective measures.
Finding Enterprise Ransomware Protection
Working with a professional is one of the best ways to get started with enterprise ransomware protection. Not all third-party providers are created equal, though. Let’s explore the key attributes to look for.
Reputation
What do other people online have to say about their experience? Were they satisfied with their overall results? Answering questions like these will help you narrow down your potential options.
Pay attention to how they respond to criticism, as well. Don’t work with anyone who gets defensive or aggressive toward negative feedback. Avoid companies that have little to no feedback, as well.
While these aren’t guaranteed to fall short of your goals, you’ll take unnecessary risks by hiring them. Keep an eye out for fake reviews.
These often contain many of the same keywords and are posted in large batches. Fake reviews can be positive or negative, and you should exclude these when assessing the company.
Experience
How experienced is the company in the industry? You’ll get the best results by working with someone who’s been around for at least a decade. This also gives them a better chance of understanding your project’s nuances.
Tools and Resources
Without the right tools and resources, your results will be inconsistent and subpar. Only hire firms that make use of contemporary technology. Defending against ransomware is an evolving landscape, and using outdated tools will be insufficient in combating threats.
The company you hire should also be proactive about looking for new tools to use. If they don’t seem to care about upgrading their technology, your data could be at risk.
Best Practices
To keep your data safe, there are certain practices to utilize. This can help you achieve better results. Keep the following information in mind when moving forward.
Investigate All Entry Points
It’s crucial to be fully aware of all the entry points to your company’s network. This involves assessing each application and service that has permission to access them, as well.
You can then remove unnecessary entry points and improve security for the remaining ones. Regularly assess your entry points when moving forward.
Organize Regular Access Interviews
Access interviews will provide a better understanding of what users have access to certain data. A common example is periodically assessing which workers at your organization can log into certain accounts or servers.
If you discover areas of concern, make changes as soon as possible. This will keep your network safer and make it easier to defend against ransomware attacks.
Use Data Loss Prevention Solutions
Ransomware attacks are only effective if the victim doesn’t have a way to recover their data. If you have access to comprehensive backups, for example, you could ignore the attack and restore the required information. There’s also specialized software available that can help you recover damaged, encrypted, or corrupted data.
Train Your Team
It’s imperative to train your team appropriately to avoid potential complications. A large percentage of ransomware attacks could be prevented with the right level of employee training. This will inform them of the most important signs to watch out for and what steps to take if an attack occurs.
You should also assess your training multiple times per year. Hackers are constantly looking for ways to improve their techniques, and you’ll need to refine your preventative methods in response.
Develop a Contingency Plan
It’s crucial to assume that a ransomware attack will inevitably be successful. If you don’t have a contingency plan, this incident could be grueling to recover from. Your contingency plan should have multiple courses of action for the most likely scenarios.
For instance, you could decide what to do if a ransomware attack caused downtime that led to damaged client relationships. You’ll likely need to rework these plans at least a few times per year.
As previously mentioned, ransomware is becoming more effective over time. Defense tactics that worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the future.
Take Action ASAP
If your company doesn’t already implement enterprise ransomware protection, it’s essential to take action as soon as possible. This will help you avoid issues you may have otherwise encountered and keep your company running efficiently. Just be sure to find the right provider.
Vertical IT Solutions owns its cloud infrastructure and develops customized enterprise ransomware protection plans for each of its clients. We strive to give your company the tools and resources to help you scale as soon as possible. You’ll learn more about how we can help your company when you schedule a consultation for enterprise ransomware protection today.