Ransomware has been becoming more prevalent as multi-million-dollar organizations campaign against any vulnerable organization. Without the proper safeguards, you and your organization are more vulnerable against these attacks. We will be going over the easiest ways you can prevent ransomware attacks from happening.
1. XDR (eXtended Detection & Response)
Next Generation Anti-Virus and XDR are the next level of prevention compared to the Anti-Virus offerings from the 90's. They use Machine learning and behavioral analytics to identify threats before they start problems on your computer. When deployed to multiple machines, we are also able to identify threats from a single portal and become alerted of any threats before they happen. We recommend and use Bit Defender and Sentinel One to fulfill this need.
2. No Local Admin Access For Users
One sure way to gain privileged access to a computer is to use the credentials of someone that is logged in that is already an admin. If you're admin on your computer you use every day, you open yourself to attackers that can use those credentials against you to install their payload and continue to access files without your knowledge.
3. Security Awareness Training
In most organizations, the users are the weakest link. Many times, your employees are the target for phishing campaigns that will give the attackers access to more information or worse, the credentials to the kingdom. Security Awareness Training will help your employees identify these threats before they submit more information or click any attachments and links.
4. Verify Email Sender
When in doubt, pick up the phone and talk to the person sending emails. We see countless organizations that are victims of attacks. If there are any doubts of the origin or intended use of an email, ask the recipient. Caution: Many advance attackers are aware of this and may respond back via email to confirm. So please use caution and confirm over phone if necessary.
5. Application Whitelisting
Application whitelisting allows you to control which applications get to run on the computer. As part of our advance security package, you control which programs are allowed to run. If they are not on that list, it's not allowed to run. This process does take time to implement and will need to be consistently fine-tuned as application needs change in your company
6. Patching
Security Vulnerabilities are found nearly daily. Some impacts so little and so hard to implement, that they are not critical. However, there are much larger events like "Printer Nightmare" and "Exchange Zero-Day" that require immediate attention. In either case, it's best to keep your software and Operating System up to date. If you don't, you risk an attacker gaining access to data, and control that they shouldn't have.
7. Dark Web Monitoring
Your credentials are the key to your company and online presence. An attacker getting these is gold for them. There are several sites for malicious attackers to buy and sell stolen credentials in bulk. Dark Web Monitoring lets you know if your credentials have been leaked through these means. With our Advance security package, you will get access to our password manager with built-in Dark Web Monitoring.
8. Ransomware Canaries
Would you know if your organization was hit by ransomware before it ruins all your data? Setting Canaries in your computers will allow you to know when and where the ransomware has hit. Our Advance security package includes our Threat Hunter package that adds Ransomware Canaries to all your computers.
Bonus: Backups
So, you've done it! You have setup your company to have the best protection again ransomware. But even the best solutions cannot guarantee that you will never get ransomware. You still need a good backup of your data. And you should have a copy of that data off-site. Our Back-up and Disaster Recovery solutions allow you to rollback any changes of your critical systems and data. So, if a Ransomware does get through your defenses, you are not left hopeless.
Good security hygiene and processes are paramount to protecting your organization. All the items mentioned will lead you towards a path of security and peace of mind. If you have any questions or need help, press the button for a Free Consultation and we will be happy to see how we can solve this for you.