How to Develop a Proactive Ransomware Protection Strategy
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:07 am
Being prepared to act in a time of crisis won’t make the crisis go away, but it will allow you to make better decisions. In critical times, the right decisions can mitigate the amount of damage caused and minimize the impact on business operations. This is particularly true when it comes to protecting your organization from ransomware.
The longer it takes your IT security team to react to a successful ransomware attack, the greater the amount of data that will be encrypted and rendered useless, or even worse , until the situation is resolved.
Proactively defending your data against ransomware will save your organization the cost of cleanup and reputation repair. Factoring in downtime, security audits, hardware replacement, and loss of customer trust, ransomware attacks cost businesses more than $7.5 billion in 2019 .
Now consider that ransomware operators, like those japan whatsapp data behind the Maze ransomware , may change their tactics and may even expose your data to the public, not just encrypt it. The good news is that implementing proactive ransomware protection strategies will prevent many attacks and minimize the impact on your organization if one is successful.
Knowledge is power when it comes to preventing ransomware attacks. Give your security team the tools they need to set up your defense before they need it. These five best practices will lay a solid, secure foundation for your ransomware protection strategy .
1. Know the inputs you are protecting.
You can't protect something if you don't know it exists, so a detailed inventory of your network is critical early in the process. Map out every service, device, and application connected to your network. Eliminate non-essential entry points and strengthen the security of the remaining ones.
2. Know your weak points.
Today’s remote and highly distributed workforce has facilitated a wide variety of new vulnerabilities. There are millions of new employees working from home, accessing sensitive business applications and data from unsecured home internet connections. Many of these workers use their own devices for work, and their work devices for personal tasks, and they often share their computers with other members of the household.
Contingent workers and outside vendors may also need access to enterprise applications and systems, further expanding the network attack surface because you can only hope they care as much about security as you do.
One way to mitigate this risk is by implementing regular access reviews to ensure that people using your network services and applications have the appropriate level of permissions and the least amount of privileges.
The longer it takes your IT security team to react to a successful ransomware attack, the greater the amount of data that will be encrypted and rendered useless, or even worse , until the situation is resolved.
Proactively defending your data against ransomware will save your organization the cost of cleanup and reputation repair. Factoring in downtime, security audits, hardware replacement, and loss of customer trust, ransomware attacks cost businesses more than $7.5 billion in 2019 .
Now consider that ransomware operators, like those japan whatsapp data behind the Maze ransomware , may change their tactics and may even expose your data to the public, not just encrypt it. The good news is that implementing proactive ransomware protection strategies will prevent many attacks and minimize the impact on your organization if one is successful.
Knowledge is power when it comes to preventing ransomware attacks. Give your security team the tools they need to set up your defense before they need it. These five best practices will lay a solid, secure foundation for your ransomware protection strategy .
1. Know the inputs you are protecting.
You can't protect something if you don't know it exists, so a detailed inventory of your network is critical early in the process. Map out every service, device, and application connected to your network. Eliminate non-essential entry points and strengthen the security of the remaining ones.
2. Know your weak points.
Today’s remote and highly distributed workforce has facilitated a wide variety of new vulnerabilities. There are millions of new employees working from home, accessing sensitive business applications and data from unsecured home internet connections. Many of these workers use their own devices for work, and their work devices for personal tasks, and they often share their computers with other members of the household.
Contingent workers and outside vendors may also need access to enterprise applications and systems, further expanding the network attack surface because you can only hope they care as much about security as you do.
One way to mitigate this risk is by implementing regular access reviews to ensure that people using your network services and applications have the appropriate level of permissions and the least amount of privileges.