HOW TO BEAT RANSOMWARE

Almost every week, another headline is issued about a company being held hostage by ransomware. Organizations increasingly fall prey to malicious software that encrypts sensitive files, then demands payment from affected parties to regain access to their own information. The consequences of a ransomware attack can be devastating, as victims often face significant financial loss, leaked data, and irreparable damage to their reputation. 

Ransomware attacks are increasingly common. As of November 2021, over 500,000,000 ransomware attacks have taken place, affecting companies and government agencies of all sizes and alarmingly, a recent survey conducted by TechTarget found that ransomware attacks have increased by 232% in the past four years.

Understanding Ransomware

Ransomware infects an organization’s most valuable resources: data and critical IT infrastructure. It is an attack orchestrated by cybercriminals to compromise IT devices, encrypt information, and deny access until a ransom is paid. In some cases, cybercriminals will also exfiltrate the data and threaten to leak or sell it, forcing an organization to suffer reputational harm and further ransom. Beyond simply paying the ransom, attacks cost companies an average of $4.2 million in recovery costs and operational downtime, and most only get an average of 65% of their data back.

You can calculate the downtime cost by using this cost of downtime calculator.

IT security leaders should work under the assumption that a ransomware attack will be successful and ensure that the organization is prepared to detect it as early as possible. 

Once ransomware has bypassed an organization’s perimeter tools and preventative measures, it can propagate throughout the IT infrastructure, encrypting 20,000 files per minute and inflicting widespread damage.  IT security leaders should work under the assumption that a ransomware attack will be successful and ensure that the organization is prepared to detect it as early as possible. 

Once ransomware is in an organization’s environment,  a ransomware containment solution can stop an active attack in seconds, preventing encryption and exfiltration of your data.  

The first and most immediately actionable step in creating a defensive cybersecurity posture is prevention. This can be started by employing housekeeping measures such as:

• Educating employees on best practices (E.G. Identifying suspicious email attachments)
• Continuously maintaining data backups
• Investing in cyber insurance
• Utilizing a multi-layered security infrastructure
• Conducting network vulnerability assessments

How to beat Ransomware? Containment.

Bad actors are motivated by financial gain. To defeat ransomware, cybercriminals must be kept from achieving their main goal of stealing information for profit. If an attack is successful, an organization is 80% more likely to suffer a second ransomware attack. Preventative measures are a good way to defeat many ransomware attempts, and backups are the best way to recover data if an organization chooses not to pay the ransom or doesn’t get all of its data back. 

But with the prevalence of ransomware variants that can successfully bypass preventative solutions, a ransomware containment solution that effectively stops the attack before damage is done is now a critical layer to be added to an organization’s security defense strategy. With a containment solution, cybercriminals are unsuccessful in their first attempt and have no incentive to perpetrate another. Their business model will incent them to move on to less protected targets. 

Traditional solutions look for signatures and behaviors to detect malicious activity on the

endpoint itself, but cybercriminals are rapidly evolving their strategy. Attackers are finding novel ways to circumvent perimeter protection tools to access critical IT infrastructure. It is no longer just the targeted endpoints; it is the data assets residing on file shares and/or living in the cloud.

Your Security

The number of ransomware attacks is increasing every day. When ransomware infects valuable data and IT infrastructure, the consequences can be devastating, leading to downtime and significant financial loss for those affected, and traditional security solutions are often ineffective, leaving many to wonder how to beat Ransomware.

Preventing attacks may be impossible; however, a way to defeat ransomware is by containing the impact with an active defense solution with BullWall. Regain command and control of your cyber security. If you want to learn more about ransomware containment, contact the team at BullWall today!

Learn More

BullWall offers a ransomware penetration test to help you assess how your current tools respond to various ransomware variants. Request an assessment or schedule a demo of our containment solution today!