As technology becomes complex every passing day, the need for businesses to follow more effective cybersecurity practices increase. Online data is one of the most valuable assets for companies that could affect their entire business operations. Ransomware attacks can happen to anyone, whether individuals or business. Hence, it becomes a priority for businesses to be proactive against any such attacks by adopting the best ransomware strategy. Let us give you a comprehensive look at ransomware and the best practices to prevent such attacks in 2022. Let’s begin!!
What is Ransomware?
A Ransomware attack is often known as a kind of malware that infects the systems to hold their sensitive data until a ransom is paid. Ransomware attacks are everywhere, irrespective of the size and type of organization. One of the biggest reasons businesses fear ransomware attacks is losing their data in case of inability to pay the ransom on time. This is the biggest threat for those organizations that rely on their data for their regular business activities. A slight delay can permanently lose data as they use a binary encryption key to restrict data access.
10 Ransomware Prevention Practices You Must Follow
Check out these 10 practical tips to keep your servers free from all types of ransomware attacks:
#1 Periodic Data Backup
One of the most effective methods against ransomware attacks can be regular data backups. Since the intruder might enter your systems to wipe out all the data, continuous backing up of data can save a lot. The best way is to back up the most critical data you need for regular business operations at least once a day. Moreover, you can also follow a 3-2-1 rule to keep two copies on different drives online and one copy offline. You can also save one more copy in an immutable (non-alterable) or indelible (non- deletable) to the cloud servers for an extra level of protection.
#2 Set up a Firewall
Firewalls offer excellent protection against external threats to save you from both hardware and software-based attacks. It appears as the first line of defense against all types of security threats entering the organization’s private network. Thus, it becomes essential for organizations to set up firewall safety.
#3 Update System and Software
One of the reasons ransomware attackers can easily target the networks of individuals or organizations is the lack of knowledge to keep your system and software updated. With each passing day, cyber attackers evolve continuously to bypass the loopholes in the current versions of the software or system. Thus, it is even more critical to keep all your software and system updated to have better security against all malicious threats.
#4 Protect Email
Among the many sources, emails are always on top of the list of cyber attackers. Email phishing can eventually lead to ransomware as the attackers breach the organization’s network to steal their sensitive data by asking for ransom. Choose effective email phishing strategies to secure your emails from all types of threats.
#5 App or Website Whitelisting
Another excellent method organization can use to protect from Ransomware attacks is whitelisting applications authorized by them only. Sometimes, employees can download a file mistakenly from unauthorized sources, putting the organization’s network at risk. By whitelisting applications or websites, the system can easily block the access of applications or websites not whitelisted by the administrators.
#6 Cybersecurity Awareness Training
As employees are the weakest pillar for cyber attackers, conducting cybersecurity awareness training programs is a must. The organization can conduct periodical cyber awareness training for their employees to teach them about safe browsing and identifying suspicious activities over the servers. It is believed that teaching cybersecurity awareness can significantly impact the level of Ransomware threats.
#7 Endpoint Protection
As the work-from-home culture evolves, protecting sensitive data has become more complex for organizations. Endpoint protection is an excellent method used by businesses to manage and monitor each activity of remote devices. The system administrator can easily track the security of each remote device to have better control over the ransomware attacks.
#8 Zero Trust Security
One of the most effective strategies organizations use to protect their network from cyberattacks is implementing zero-trust security on their servers. Under this, organizations can limit users’ access at different stages of a process. This helps control ransomware spread to the other parts of the network by implementing a role-based access control (RBAC) policy. Under this, no external or internal user is trusted for any assigned task. That means each employee needs to verify their access using different authentication methods defined by the system administrator.
#9 Secure with Strong Password
As we have already stated, employees are the weakest point of the cyber attacker. Organizations need to set up strong passwords to prevent attackers from entering the servers, and it helps them control the access of users accessing the sensitive data without any purpose. Further, change passwords frequently to ensure better protection from ransomware attacks as it gives the organization an extra layer of protection for securing its servers from unauthorized access.
#10 Bring you Own Device (BYOD) Policy
The rise of the remote work concept has exposed organizations to higher risk levels. Too much or unregulated use of new devices puts the organization’s servers at more risk. Implementing a robust BYOD policy in the organization’s network will block all such unauthorized access to the organization’s server.
Wrapping Up Ransomware is one of the rising threats for both individuals and organizations. If you have already faced such events of ransomware attacks before, you must know how important it is to prevent your critical data from getting into the hands of attackers. Paying a ransom is not a solid solution for your sensitive data, as you don’t know whether you’ll get back all the data or not. Instead of paying a ransom, it is best for organizations to proactively invest their time and efforts in implementing an effective strategy. If you don’t want attackers to breach your sensitive data in the future, you need a robust ransomware protection strategy. Hopefully, these above points will help you get a clear view of securing your data from cyber threats.