Page 23 - Cyber Warnings

Five Things You Can Do To Protect Your Systems From

Ransomware

Ransomware may soon become one of the most popular cyber attack methods.
Don’t let yourself get caught unprepared. Here’s how you can ready yourself
against it.

by Max Emelianov, CEO, HostForWeb

Earlier this year, the FBI reported that ransomware incidents are on the rise. No matter what
industry you work in, you should be concerned. After all, virtually every business has data that’s
mission-critical; every organization has information which, should its employees lose access,
could cause regular operations to come grinding to a halt.

For the uninitiated, ransomware is a particularly nasty type of malware which locks down access
to any systems it infects. When a victim attempts to use an infected device, they’ll generally be
presented with a message - usually an account that they or their organization can forward
money to in order to regain access to their stuff. These ransoms are almost always in bitcoins,
and can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands - one hospital had to pay
$17,000 to regain access to its patient data (which probably pales in comparison to how much
money they lost while their systems were locked down).

Suffice it to say, you need to take the necessary steps to protect yourself. That’s where we
come in. Today, we’re going to go over some of the things you can do to guard against
ransomware, no matter how it infects you.

One thing before we get started. We’ve not included patching and regular backups on this list,
because we believe that’s something that every enterprise NEEDS to be doing anyway. If
you aren’t keeping an eye on security updates, none of the advice we’ve laid out here will really
be of use to you.

Keep Backups (And Keep Them Separate From Your Network)
A ransomware attack relies upon holding critical files hostage - therefore, the best way to
protect yourself against them is to keep regular, automated external backups. That way, if
access to files are locked down on your local network, you can simply format the infected
systems and restore them to working order from your backups. Of course, the criminals who
code ransomware know of this weakness - their viruses are often coded to seek out backup
systems.

23 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2016 Edition
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