Globally, cyber incidents such as ransomware are the leading risk threatening business success. In fact, ransomware attacks pose a significant threat to businesses of all sizes. If you don’t have an incident response plan for ransomware attacks in place, you’re asking for trouble.
So, what’s a business to do? Be prepared. When your business is proactively prepared for the threat of a ransomware incident, you’ll be ready to detect and mitigate the incident faster while reconnecting and restoring data in a safer manner. You will also have the confidence that the same or similar tactics cannot be used against your organization again.
Let’s take a look at the current state of ransomware and the direction it may be headed. Next, we’ll pivot to review some of today’s most effective cybersecurity strategies and finally, we’ll review the highlights of how to create your own ransomware response checklist.
Related: How Long Does It Take to Detect a Cyberattack?
Ransomware threat actors have accelerated their tactics and techniques in recent years. The diversity of ransomware attack types is growing, too. Here are four types of ransomware attacks that we’ve recently seen targeting businesses.
Threat actors are now taking more time to prepare for their attacks, gaining insight into their targeted victim’s vulnerabilities, networked systems and business behaviors. With this information, threat actors find gaps in a business’s cybersecurity and be able to customize their attack for maximum impact and destruction.
Having your files encrypted and then receiving a ransom note can put your cybersecurity experts on high alert. But if double extortion is a threat actor’s end goal – you’ll be in double the trouble.
In double extortion, a threat actor will extract sensitive data before encrypting your files. They will then threaten to sell your data if the ransom is not paid. In this manner, the threat actor presents two threats instead of just one. Even if you can unlock or recover your own data, you could be risking your sensitive business files being sold to the highest bidder or released to the public along with any sensitive information it contains. Even if this data is benign, it can create a reputation and trust concern with your customers and employees.
Ransomware is commonly based on executing malicious files into a victim’s networked system. But more and more, we’ve seen the rise of fileless ransomware. This type of ransomware is more difficult to detect as it hides within a system’s memory. Using this method, threat actors can release ransomware without leaving noticeable tracks, unlike file-based ransomware.
Ransomware as a Service
Ransomware has been found available for purchase (or rent) on the dark web. Therefore, it now takes little to no IT skills to launch a ransomware attack on a business. In fact someone with a marketing background may be more effective than a traditional IT person at getting malware onto systems. This tactic is expected to exponentially expand ransomware threats and is an excellent reminder that businesses of all sizes can be a ransomware target. Don’t be caught unprepared.
IT professionals have a range of tools and technologies available to assist them with their cybersecurity plans. However, being proactive is the ultimate defense against threat actors.
When evaluating your organization’s cybersecurity, make sure it includes these five essential strategies:
It’s also important to have a plan ready in the unfortunate event that a threat actor breaches your defenses and holds your data for ransom. A comprehensive response procedure should include a full spectrum of directives, including detection, containment and eradication.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has recommended a ransomware response checklist designed to guide you through a ransomware incident. This checklist provides a framework for organizations to build their own ransomware cybersecurity breach response plan.
The steps in this checklist are organized into three sections:
For more information, we suggest that you review CISA’s Stop Ransomware Guide.
Did you know that 71 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses? Just because your business is small doesn’t mean you can’t have best-in-class cybersecurity. Learn how to better understand your tech environment needs and identify potential gaps or risks. Download your complimentary Business Technology Inventory Checklist, today!
