Not a day goes by when we don’t see a barrage of ransomware related headlines!
The threat of ransomware is has gripped everyone—it’s scary and growing at a rapid rate. Sadly, ransomware is becoming an increasingly popular way for malware authors to extort money from companies and individuals alike. There are a variety of tactics taken in use by the Cyber villains, but gradually they all initiate from targeting the software vulnerability of a system. Cyber thieves are abandoning their old ways of making money- i.e. stealing credit card numbers and bank account credentials—and instead turning to ransomware.
The threat presented by ransomware is real. No business or individual is immune from a potential ransomware attack.
5 Ways to Avoid Ransomware crisis:
The best, the absolute best way for a company to protect itself from ransomware is to teach its employees about healthy cybersecurity practices. We have listed down a few ways, to gain some insight into how today’s companies are protecting themselves and defending against evolving ransomware attacks:
- Backup Essential Data
The single biggest thing that will defeat ransomware is regular data files backup. This is so far the most effective measure against ransomware attacks. There are a ton of options here, from backing up to cloud service providers to local storage devices or even network attached drives. The most effective backup though would be secure cloud backups considering local networks and drives too can be easily infected.
- Strong and Secure Antivirus Suite
Make sure that an up-to-date antivirus is installed on all your Systems. Additionally, it’s best to have a multi-faceted security solution that employs additional protective technologies such as heuristics, firewalls and so on.
- Patching
Patching is a standard security procedure for preventing malicious software from infecting your system. Systems are commonly exploited through a third party software such as Java, Flash, Adobe, etc. Developers of all such software often ‘patch up’ vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malware. It is therefore essential to keep updating installed programs on your System to ensure the vulnerabilities are patched.
- Say no to Suspicious emails and links
Emails have always been hacker’s all-time favorite bait. You’ll often see that the subject of such emails is quite catchy which lures the individual to certainly tap on it. More often than not, such emails carry malicious attachment or instruct you to click on a URL where malware surreptitiously crawl into your machine.
- Disconnect Wi-Fi when not in use
Open Wi-Fi networks are often found to be the primary source of how malicious content swiftly slips and breaks through organization’s protective firewall. While in premises, make a practice to instantly disconnect from the Wi-Fi network when not in use to prevent any potential threat.
Don’t Ever Pay the Ransom!
Even if you are attacked by a ransomware, don’t ever think of paying the ransom amount at any cost. Not only does that not guarantee you getting your files back, but it also motivates these hackers to continue attacking businesses everywhere. Also, there is no guarantee you won’t be attacked by ransomware again, so you could end up paying month in – month out, never getting your files back.
Always remember, by paying criminals, you’re giving them an incentive and the means to develop better ransomware in future. So don’t let them wreck our lives!
Stay protected & Beware of Intruders!
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