Tip of the Week: 5 Reminders To Protect You Against Ransomware

The Internet is a vast place filled to the brim with threats, especially for businesses that need to preserve the integrity of their infrastructure and keep critical data safe. The Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report states that ransomware is growing at a yearly rate of 350%, which is a considerable number to say the least. Here are five tips that can help you keep your business safe from ransomware infections.

Remember Your Employees
Often times it’s your employees who are the first to come into contact with ransomware. Ransomware is often spread through spam messages that lurk in the inboxes of your employees. It’s best to educate them on how to avoid ransomware in the first place, as it can quickly become a pain to deal with once ransomware makes its home on your network.

Don’t Pay the Ransom
Even if your data is threatened by ransomware, it’s not worth paying the ransom to get it back. The mindset you need to keep is that you have to assume the worst. What if you pay up and you don’t get your data back at all? You can’t trust crooks to keep their word. You’re better off reaching out to a trusted IT service provider for assistance with your predicament.

Take Regular Backups
Since you can’t trust hackers to hand over the decryption key, you’ll have to resort to a more reliable way of ensuring your data’s safety. Data backup can help you prepare for the day you need to restore your data following a disaster. The ideal data backup solution will take multiple backups of your data several times throughout the day, and send them to an off-site data center or the cloud for safekeeping. The idea here is to make sure that your data backups aren’t stored on an infected network so that they will work properly when push comes to shove.

Ensure Your Security is Up to Date
Ransomware is always trying everything it can to slip through the cracks found in enterprise security. Therefore, you must take a proactive stance by updating your network’s security protocol so that all known variants of malware can be kept out of your infrastructure. This includes updating your software solutions, including your operating system and applications, to ensure maximum security.

Be Wary of Email
As we mentioned before, ransomware prefers email as its movement medium. Encourage any and all users on your network to be cautious of any unsolicited messages--especially those that contain links and attachments.

Microsoft users who want to find out more about ransomware can do so at the Ransomware FAQ that is regularly updated in the Windows Defender Security Intelligence (WDSI) database of threats. If you want a more personalized approach to ransomware security, however, reach out to Computerware at (703) 821-8200.