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Digital security continues to be a chief concern for many businesses. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or how big or small the organization is – there’s a good chance you’re facing serious risks every day, including ones you may not know about.
While the regular increase in ransomware attacks each year is definitely alarming, having the right amount of preparation in place is what separates a minor issue from a major disaster.
By putting the right expertise, technology, and strategies in place, you can dramatically lower your chances of being a target and limit the long-term damage an attack can do to your business.
Recognize Early Signs of an Attack
Most people are well aware of the speed and impact of a ransomware attack. But the truth is, that while it might look like the attack came out of nowhere, that’s rarely the case. Attackers almost always leave clues behind before they launch their payloads.
A common warning sign that an attack is imminent is unusual spikes in network activity. This is often the case during off-hours when most employees are gone for the day. Keeping a close eye on that traffic can be a significant help when spotting an intrusion before it escalates.
It’s also important to remember that not all attacks might be aimed directly at your business. Your organization could also become collateral damage from a breach at one of your vendors. This is why strong third-party risk management is so important. You need to be keenly aware of whether there was a recent breach in your supply chain that could have indirectly exposed your company’s data in one way or another.
Isolate and Control
If you suspect a ransomware attack is taking place, speed is everything. How fast your team reacts to new threats is the single biggest factor in how narrow or wide the attack surface becomes.
Catching and managing these breaches right away significantly reduces the odds of increased operational downtime, lost data, or other reputational damage.
Your cybersecurity technology stack and supporting protocols should focus on two primary things: threat isolation and control. Isolating threats as soon as they’re detected is what buys your incident response personnel the critical time they need to step in. When you wall off a threat like this, it makes it much harder for the malware to spread across the rest of your core networks.
Conduct a Full Threat Analysis
Once you’ve successfully contained the threat, you should launch a full-scale threat analysis to document every system that was affected and how. This is the only way to understand the actual scope of the breach and figure out exactly where you should be focusing your recovery efforts.
An important element of this investigation is identifying the specific type of ransomware you’re up against. While many ransomware strains might be focused on encrypting data as fast as possible, the attacker’s ultimate goal can vary considerably.
In some cases, the primary objective might just be to disrupt your operations, not necessarily to get a payout. Those scenarios are often much more dangerous, as the attackers might bypass the ransom demand entirely and move straight to wiping your systems or databases completely.
Understand Your Legal Obligations
Another critical aspect of your ransomware recovery efforts should be to understand and meet all your legal and regulatory obligations applicable to your business and industry.
Most companies are bound by strict compliance rules that dictate how they need to protect customer information. When the integrity of that data is compromised (which is exactly what happens in a ransomware attack), specific protocols need to kick in.
It’s important that you take the time well before a data breach incident to understand your risk factors and adopt the right compliance framework. You should review any controls and directives in place to ensure your company fully understands its obligations and is implementing the right safeguards to defend your data.
Work With Trained Specialists
To better position your organization against modern security threats, having the right resources and skills on hand is key. But here’s the issue – many businesses simply don’t have the budget or the internal structure to hire a dedicated, full-time security staff. This is why bringing in that expertise from the outside can be a much more sustainable direction.
By working with third-party security experts, such as Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) or specialized penetration testing teams, you can get immediate access to the technology, tools, and methodologies to keep your business protected as you scale.
These specialists don’t just help you find and fix the weak spots in your operation – they’ll also help you build an effective recovery plan in the event you’re faced with operational disruptions in the future.
Weigh Your Options for Recovery
In a perfect world, your company has already been diligently maintaining up-to-date backups of all critical software and data. If you have those reliable copies on hand, you can immediately start recovery processes in the wake of a ransomware event.
The toughest spot to be in is when you don’t have those backups available, or worse, the attack compromised your backups in addition to your primary systems. This is when leadership may be tempted to pay the ransom and make the problem “go away.” But it’s critical to resist that impulse.
Handing over a ransom payment gives you zero guarantee that you’ll get your encrypted files back. All it really does is confirm to the attackers that you’re a paying customer, making you a much more likely target for future extortion.
When facing a decision this big, the smartest move is to get guidance from experienced data retrieval experts. They can help you evaluate the choices in front of you, map out the associated costs, and estimate the timeline for a full recovery.
Avoid Becoming a Victim of Ransomware
Ransomware is, without a doubt, one of the biggest cybersecurity threats today.
However, by understanding the dangers you’re facing and, more importantly, by building proactive safeguards to defend your operations now, you’ll be in a better position to handle this and other security challenges that come your way.
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