Ransomware gangs are aware that the best use of their resources is to target corporate networks where they can gain access to many PCs and valuable institutional data. After all, a business is more likely to have the ability to pay off the weighty ransoms that these crooks demand in order to return the information they’ve gained access to.

A large body of evidence, most recently from McAfee, shows that ransomware attacks increased by 118% in 2019. The No More Ransom collective is hard at work against the latest ransomware families, but none of their innovations can have a positive effect if companies don’t heed the warnings of IT security experts.

Follow our guidelines below to examine five crucial aspects of your organization. Each of these should be carefully examined for vulnerabilities that ransomware gangs could exploit.

Safeguard and Fortify these 5 Areas Against Ransomware

1. Your Employees: People within your organization are vulnerable to attacks, especially if they have public social media profiles that can be mined for data. Their names and interests are often used to create targeted phishing emails that appear trustworthy. Take the proper measures by teaching your employees to remain skeptical of emails from unknown sources, and to be alert to email addresses that try to mimic trusted sources.
2. Your Business Email System: You should also ensure at an administrative level that suspicious emails are thwarted before reaching your employees. Anti-virus scanning can be automatically enabled for all emails that come through your company’s email system, and you can also ask your administrator to make email attachment titles and file formats viewable so that employees can easily detect when suspicious links land in their inbox.
3. Your Network: If all your servers and PCs are connected, ransomware can spread easily once it enters your system. You can ensure this doesn’t happen by, for example, ensuring that your business LANs are segmented or by using private VLANs.
4. Your System-level Folders: Certain folders on your operating system are often targets for ransomware. On Windows, these are the AppData and LocalAppData folders, which is where standard Windows processes are located. Ransomware tries to gain access to these folders, but you can prevent this by restricting access to important locations on your company’s computers.
5. Your Applications: Creators of ransomware are aware that even though software companies are continuously releasing newer versions of their product to prevent hacking, not every user follows through with updates. Pay attention to new releases of the software and applications your company uses to assure that they are continuously updated with the latest security patches.

Thwart Ransomware Campaigns with Expert Solutions from GlassHouse Systems

Prevention is the best measure you can take against ransomware. We at GlassHouse systems are here to help your company stay ahead of cyber threats – from the most innovative security software to data backup systems. However, we also recognize that tech catastrophes can’t be completely avoided. Unfortunate cyber attacks do occur, and in these cases, it is crucial to have a plan for how your organization will respond. GHS can ensure you have a plan in place: one that covers technical responses such as cleaning PCs and reinstalling information that has been backed up, as well as what you might need to communicate to your customers, vendors, and the press. 

Our award-winning system is backed by 25 years of service. Contact us or leave a comment below to find out how we can help you protect your data and assets from ransomware.

For Canada and worldwide, contact our main Canadian offices:

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By email: canada@ghsystems.com

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