How to protect your business from ransomware

No business is immune to cyberattacks. Between January and July 2021, the FBI reported 2,084 ransomware complaints in their Internet Crime Complaint Center. As technology improves, gets faster and includes more devices, hackers are improving their methods of stealing information as well.

The repercussions of a cyber-attack could be a frozen computer or phone, stolen data and sold information to the public on the dark web. While this threat is especially significant for the growing technology in the medical and government sectors, every business collects sensitive customer data every day. Once a cybercriminal has snuck into your computer, they could have access to your entire network and put everyone involved in your business at risk.

Let’s explore how to prevent ransomware for your business.

Ransomware attacks at a glance

Ransomware is a type of cyberattack where a hacker infiltrates your network and holds data (or even your entire infrastructure) hostage for large sums of money.

The State of Ransomware 2022 report collected data from over 5,600 IT professionals across 31 countries, and found that 66% of organizations got hit by a ransomware attack in 2021, and the average ransom request was $1 million. Even after paying the ransom, however, only 4% actually got all of their data information back.

Not only is the price of getting your operating system back high, but it’s only getting higher. There is a 21% chance your data’s bail amount will be $10,000 or less, and the average data breach ransom has gone up 7% from 2020.

Here are some common reasons ransomware should be at the top of your IT department’s mind:

• Business data loss
  

  Your data is the foundation of your business. Your website, customer information, all of your advertising campaigns and so much more are the pieces of information you’ve used to grow your company and make it what it is today. Eliminating this data from your backlog could mean having to start from scratch.

• Loss of customer trust
  Customers trust you to protect their information when they choose to shop with you; losing their sensitive data to a ransomware attacker can be detrimental to your business. Norton found that in 2021, 63% of customers were concerned about their data being stolen while navigating the internet and interacting with businesses online — and the rise of ransomware attacks hasn’t helped calm their nerves.
  After your data is compromised by a cybercriminal, your customers are more likely to avoid working with you as well. If they share their banking information, social security numbers, personal information or license details with your business and those details are compromised, that directly impacts the customer. This can turn into identity theft, credit card theft, and other social engineering scams that can take a lifetime to recover from.

• Higher costs for goods and services

  If you pay off the hacker, this will directly affect the price of your goods and services. You can’t just pay the ransom and move on, you have to:

  • Hire a lawyer team to investigate.
  • Build up new systems to remain compliant with regulations.
  • Disrupt operations to get back online.
    
  
  And after all of these steps are taken, who else can pay for them but the customers when they get to the checkout line? With costs going up every year, there is only so much you can do without the right resilient, proactive cyber security posture.
  
  
• Your information could get auctioned off to competitors
  Enterprise scamming can reach beyond customer distress, and greatly affect your business practices as well. Cybercriminals can take your information and sell it on the dark web, where other hackers and companies can buy it and use it to their advantage. They may use it to commit fraud, or to sell the information to the highest bidder — like an industry competitor.
  What’s worse, the information could be simply released to the public. While you hope there isn’t any incriminating information buried deep within your database, a hacker may find something that could be leveraged for blackmail or put you in serious legal trouble.
  In short, while an attack may only happen once, the ramifications of identity theft and fraud could last forever.

Types of Ransomware

Not all ransomware is created equal, and knowing the differences can help you identify where the problem is coming from and protect from it in the future. Each type has similar characteristics such that all attacks are financially motivated and they threaten the digital health of your business. The differences lie in the way the attack occurs and the techniques hackers use to infiltrate your network.

Exploring the different types of ransomware can better prepare you for their attack.

Crypto ransomware

When a cybercriminal steals your data and encrypts the information so you cannot access it, this is called crypto-ransomware. It’s also known as data kidnapping and is highly lucrative for hackers. If the attacker has more advanced technology, they may even try encrypting your backup data to prevent you from restoring the information that was lost.

Exfiltration

If you’ve ever seen in the movies where the bad kid steals the shy one’s diary and threatens to leak the information to the entire school, that is a real-world example of exfiltration. The hacker will steal your sensitive data and threaten to publish it online unless you offer a ransom.

Distributed denial-of-service

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) ransomware attacks target your entire network services, not your  data. Hackers will send a large amount of junk network traffic to their targets so that customers and users cannot use the service. Rather than a single-sourced attack, DDoS attacks are distributed and come from a variety of sources so that they’re harder to block and avoid.

 This type of ransomware threat is very resource-heavy and the hacker may not have the capacity to carry the attack through to where the business is forced to pay the ransom.

Screen locker

Screen locker ransomware is a common attack where the hacker locks your entire computer until you pay the ransom. When you try to reboot your device, a message for payment will appear, typically with a countdown until the data is completely lost to push the user to pay more quickly.

However, there are ways to get around this attack fairly easily by rebooting your computer in safe mode and implementing antivirus software.

Scareware

You’ve probably encountered this type of ransomware in the early days of the computer. Scareware displays a pop-up window that shows the logo and flashing images saying that you have been infected by malware and there is urgent action required. It may instruct you to download malicious software to remove the issue. However, all you have to do is leave the message and remove it to avoid the attack.  

Telesystem has the Cybersecurity solutions you need

The greatest defense against ransomware is to take a proactive approach. In the event that your  files are encrypted and you don't have a plan in place, your chance of recovering them is slim, and the outcome could leave your business in shambles.  With that in mind, we want to prevent bad things before they happen. Our team has designed a line of security solutions to protect your company and employees from cyber attacks.

Managed Security Services

With cybercrime on the rise every year, it can be very stressful for businesses to try to figure out how to monitor and prevent potential cyber threats on their own. Telesystem offers a comprehensive Managed Security solutions to predict, prevent, detect, and respond to threats across your entire business. Our Security Operations Center (SOC) analyzes over 6 billion logs every day. As such, this will allow your company to focus on its day-to-day activities to drive business growth and leave the cybercriminals and technology to the experts.

DDoS Protection

Since DDoS attacks can spread quickly throughout a network, it’s crucial to detect, prevent and defend in real-time to ensure your resources are safe from malicious attacks. Telesystem’s built-in DDoS protection is designed to defend against bots, botnets, cyber threats, unwanted and excessive traffic bans, and malicious IP addresses, and is equipped with advanced reporting and monitoring tools. At Telesystem, our DDoS Protection is built into the core of our network and is passed onto our customers at no additional charge.

Endpoint Protection

As the transition from the office to working from home became the new norm, the attack surface for cybercriminals extended into employees' home networks and personal devices. Remote endpoints create a potential opportunity for criminals to access confidential information or, worse, your company’s main network. With our advanced Endpoint Protection solution, you’ll never have to worry about your devices being compromised. Our Endpoint Protection platform is equipped with Automated Global Whitelist technology, where only ‘trusted’ applications are allowed to run on the endpoint providing a significantly better security solution than traditional anti-virus products. If an application is not on the Whitelist, our Endpoint Protection blocks it, and the proprietary automation technology uploads the sample for immediate analysis and classification by our malware professionals. This automated process of analysis and classification keeps the whitelist updated in real time without user intervention.

Employee Security Awareness Training

Security awareness training is one of the most critical trainings a company can provide, as employees and end users are the most common avenues for cyberattacks. Our Security Awareness Training is designed to equip your team with the knowledge they need to spot attempts to break into your valuable systems. Through comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training, we will educate your employees on threats such as spam, phishing, malware, ransomware, social engineering, and more, turning your staff into a "human firewall" for your business. Having basic cybersecurity knowledge can significantly prevent ransomware attacks at the source. 

An attack is never truly avoidable, but it is preventable with the right managed security partner.

By implementing Telesystem’s ThreatProtector Cybersecurity solutions, you’re putting your company at a huge advantage over cyber criminals and potentially avoiding paying millions of dollars in ransom.

With solutions such as managed security, DDoS protection, endpoint protection, and security awareness training, you’ll be able to sleep better at night knowing your business and employees are adequately educated and protected. Request a quote today to learn more.