How to Prevent Ransomware Virus Attack | Survival Guide

It’s a well-known fact that a ransomware virus is one of the most prevalent forms of malware in today’s world. Did you know that it is suggested that a company is hit with a ransomware virus every 40 seconds? There is an increase in the number of cyber-attacks against individuals, businesses, and even government agencies, due to new tactics, new variants, and more sophisticated cybercriminals. This is how to prevent ransomware viruses for your page.

A company that had suffered an attack is more likely to be subject to attacks that resulted from a ransom demand resulting from a compromise of a business email server. These attacks are the ideal way for cybercriminals to initiate attacks.

The impact of a ransomware virus on organizations: What is it?

Businesses and organizations are crippled and problems are wreaked as a result of a ransomware virus, an application injected into the systems that prevent them from accessing their computers or files until they pay cybercriminals a ransom fee.

As a result of the use of ransomware virus by cybercriminals, vital information is hidden behind locked files, so that the owners are forced to pay a ransom to regain access. These impacts can be extremely detrimental to the business:

• Business reputation is harmed or lost
• Information that is too important or vital to be destroyed
• Systems, files, and data being held hostage may be damaged
• A significant loss of revenue was caused by the business downtime as well as the significant business downtime

Companies or industries are not exempt from cybercrime

If you want to know how to prevent ransomware viruses, you need to consider that there is an attack targeting small, medium, and large businesses across all industries. The size or industry of a company is irrelevant when it comes to a ransomware virus. In the world of cybercrime, there is no distinction between the victims. There is also a difference between Viruses, Malware, and Ransomware.

It appears that no industry or government sector is immune to ransomware virus attacks, despite some industry sectors being bigger targets than others. There is no doubt that healthcare organizations continue to stay among the most high profile of victims, however, recent attacks have also hit several sectors, such as Education, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Entertainment/Media, and Financial Services.

There is a question that anyone would ask: How can my company be protected against attacks from these malicious groups? Which steps should I take to protect my company? It is good to have this question. So, here is how to prevent ransomware viruses.

What can you do to protect yourself against a ransomware virus?

To combat malware effectively, you need to take the time to prevent it. Many people believe that the best defense is a good offense. That is why, organizations must take sufficient steps to prevent, detect, and prepare for such events before they occur.

• Training, testing, and retraining of employees — Employees should be knowledgeable about how to identify the malicious email, how to avoid being hacked, and how to report potentially malicious emails
• Make sure you protect yourself from email threats and install an anti-malware scanner and advanced threat prevention software
• Regularly evaluate the risk of network infrastructure
• Keep all patches and updates current for software and systems
• Backup your data regularly; make sure you back it up as often as possible
• You should limit the number of administrative privileges and review them three times each year
• In order to enable remote access and privileged admin access for your company, you should implement Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
• Data storage should not be allowed to take place on a local network

To prevent an incident from occurring, preparation is necessary. As part of your firm’s cyber insurance, you may also establish an Incident Response Plan and identify where sensitive data is stored within your firm. To combat ransomware virus attacks, businesses should ideally take the following measures:

• You need to make sure you have a plan in place when an incident happens
• The location of the sensitive data should be determined
• Identification of critical systems to the operations of an organization
• The objective of the recovery points for A and B should be determined.
• If you are a policyholder of a cyber insurance carrier, then you should consult them about the forensic handling of incidents.
• You can take a backup and perform a test restore based on the recovery point objective set for the data and systems above.
• The goal of this research is to identify criteria and a decision process related to ransomware virus payments
• The first thing you must do is establish a relationship with your local police, your local security, and the FBI.
• Specifically for ransomware virus attacks, the Incident Plans should be updated frequently so that they are as effective as possible.
• Tabletop tests should be carried out for all Incident Plans.

Here is a video with more information about how to prevent Ransomware viruses attacks:

What Do We Do Now that We’ve Been Affected by Ransomware Virus?

1. Identify the extent of the attack by disconnecting from the network and determining the severity of the attack

2. Contact your legal firm as soon as possible, and your insurance provider, too

• Include the legal team in the incident plan from the get-go, and ensure that they are involved in the development of the incident
• In order to ensure the attorney-client privilege criteria are met, work with Legal in advance to properly identify what needs to be labeled and how it needs to be labeled. Maintain an updated Incident plan after an incident takes place.
• Make sure that Audit/Compliance is involved from the beginning of the incident — make sure that this is clearly outlined in the plan.

3. You have to communicate with everyone, everywhere, all the time

a. Make sure all relevant departments have approved a communication plan before an event occurs, especially for internal and external communications.

• You will need to identify one person who will make decisions for your organization.
• The plan should be made available to the appropriate audience with appropriate restrictions.
• Make sure everyone knows what their responsibilities are by creating a RACI chart.
• Ensure that your Managed Services Provider (if applicable) is included in the planning process as well as any other third-party providers you intend to involve.

b. If you determine that a criminal act has occurred, notify the FBI and your local authorities within your enterprise through the proper channels.

4. Prepare your response for a ransomware virus to the incident by implementing your incident response plan

We’re here to help you on your recovery and restoration mission after the breach of a ransomware virus:

• If all malware has been detected, ensure that server and storage are restored before moving forward with the restoration process.
• We must be aware that in order to effectively treat an infection, it is easier to scope the severity of the infection properly.
• In order to perform a root cause analysis, a forensic clone should be done before re-installing your operating system.
• Evaluate risk and vulnerabilities by conducting risk assessments and vulnerability assessments
• It is imperative that you document every meeting, every decision, and every action you take.

In this day and age of cybercrime, traditional security solutions are not enough to protect you from threats and the propagation of a ransomware virus.

You would like to ensure that your data is backed up regularly, and also to make sure that you thoroughly assess your cybersecurity landscape and take the time to assess it. You will be glad you did at the end. You are certain to accomplish the desired results at the time of the attack.

Did you learn how to prevent ransomware viruses? Make sure you are keeping a record of how you handled the incident and the lessons learned during and after the incident.

In the second step, create an action plan for improving procedures to prevent and prepare for the next incident when it occurs.

Originally published at https://tankstudiolab.com on September 29, 2021.