Ransomware is one of the most deadly cyber attacks, which takes advantage of the victim’s lack of security to make the most money by taking advantage of their trustworthiness. Ransomware thieves will stop at nothing to undermine enterprises and jeopardize many components of security systems, particularly cloud platforms, databases, and IT networks. Information is intelligence. Cybercriminals sell data on the dark web, resulting in enormous losses for businesses in terms of income, trade secrets, and business reputation.
An organization can be completely destroyed by a Ransomware assault, but enterprises can strengthen their device protection strategy by knowing the basics of the Ransomware kill chain. Read more for the best Ransomware prevention tips:
Ransomware prevention tips:
1. Train and Empower Staff
Hackers are aware that human error frequently represents the weakest point in an organization’s cyber security protection. Learn to be one step ahead.
- Don’t expect that your staff can quickly identify external dangers, particularly as malicious actors become more adept at breaking into your system.
- Educate staff members on phishing emails, suspicious websites, and other typical Ransomware attack strategies through frequent training sessions.
- Teach them how to recognize possible threats and what to do in the event that they believe they are being attacked.
- Knowing that phishing emails are frequently used to distribute Ransomware:-
- Best practices for identifying and responding to emails from unknown senders, particularly those with links or attachments, should be the main emphasis of training.
2. Set up Strong and Good Firewall
Modern firewalls are highly effective at defending against these types of cyberattacks, but they need to be given a chance to do their job. The best practices for firewall and network configuration are as follows:
- Ensure you have the best protection, Make sure you are well protected with a cutting-edge, high-performing next-generation firewall that has machine learning ransomware protection, TLS inspection, zero-day sandboxing, and intrusion prevention features.
- Use your firewall to restrict access to RDP and other services. Whitelisting approved IP addresses and limiting access for VPN users should be possible with your firewall.
- Turn on TLS inspection for web traffic and make sure it supports the most recent TLS standards to make sure dangers aren’t getting into your network through encrypted traffic flows.
- For remote management and file sharing software, use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.
3. Backup your Data
Having a data backup is the best defence against ransomware. When ransomware attacks, you have a safe and simple way to recover your data without having to pay the ransom if you have a clean backup and keep the backup safe from the ransomware’s access and encryption.
- Maintain an offline backup.– Always keep secondary offline backup copy.
- Use immutable storage i.e. (WORM- Write-Once-Read-Many).Immutable storage can store data and lock it down to prevent further modification. Immutable storage ensures backup remains unchanged.
- Endpoint protection on backup servers.
- Using 3-2-1 backup strategy :-
- 1.Have at least 3 copies of your information—one main copy and two backups.
- 2.Use two distinct media formats—for example, SSD drive and cloud storage.
- Keep 1 of those copies offsite.
4. Network Segmentation
The process of splitting up a bigger network into smaller sub-networks with little or no connectivity between them is known as network segmentation. Network segmentation stops unauthorised individuals from accessing the organization’s data and intellectual property by managing traffic flows between different sub-networks and limiting attackers lateral movement.
- Segmenting by VLAN
- Firewall Segmentation
- Least Privilege Segmentation
5. Software Patches
A software patch: what is it?
Patches are upgrades for operating systems (OS) and software that fix security flaws in a product or programme.
Applying updates and patches on a regular basis guarantees that security holes are closed, minimising the attack surface and making it harder for hackers to take advantage of vulnerabilities.
6. Security Tests
Finding and identifying potentially serious vulnerabilities in the internal or external networks, apps, or systems of your company requires penetration testing. They provide a valuable insight into the operations of your company and its people resources.
Among the dynamic security strategies is penetration testing. Security experts attempt to breach a system or launch a cyberattack in order to identify security flaws that can be exploited. Put differently, penetration tests evaluate an organization’s security procedures and equipment with the goal of identifying weak points in the system. Penetration testing can assist in identifying security issues before attackers take advantage of them, in contrast to reactive security procedures that are activated when a data breach or security issue is discovered. Penetrators that adopt an attacker’s mind-sets are able to identify security.
What steps is the US government taking to combat Ransomware?
Upon request, non-federal entities can receive incident response support from CISA, FBI, and Secret Service in the event of a Ransomware attack. Technical support is offered by CISA and the Multi-State Information Sharing and investigation Centre in the form of suggested mitigations and forensic investigation of the assault.
The US must drastically alter the risk-reward balance for hackers and the nations that sponsor or harbour them in order to stop ransomware attacks. By implementing a national deterrence policy, networks would become more difficult to compromise, hackers would face greater resistance, and those who succeed would forfeit their advantages.