Running a business today can be likened to trying to navigate a digital minefield. You know there are dangers all around, but knowing where they are and how to avoid them is rarely an easy task.
Unfortunately, these minefields are constantly moving targets. Dangerous forms of malware, such as ransomware, are becoming increasingly more sophisticated each year, making them harder to detect and mitigate.
Understanding how this landscape works and taking action now to better prepare your teams, internal systems, and external partners is key to avoiding attacks or helping the business recover from a successful breach. Below are some practical steps you can follow to make sure this is the case.
Know What to Look For
Ransomware can be very difficult to detect for businesses that don’t know what to look for. Most of the time, when ransomware infects a system, it can seem like the attack happened out of nowhere and without warning. However, when applying good security monitoring practices, there are often specific subtle or not-so-subtle hints to look for.
The most common flag to look for when trying to avoid ransomware is unexpected spikes in network traffic. This typically happens when hackers do initial reconnaissance on a network, trying various payloads to gain entry to a system. It’s important to monitor for these traffic anomalies and investigate them as soon as possible.
However, activities on your own networks aren’t the only sign that a ransomware attack could impact you. For example, if there are reports that one of your cloud providers recently experienced a data breach, it’s important to think about how that could potentially impact your own systems.
Close Off Attack Sites
The speed at which you’re able to respond when a potential or known attack has taken place can mean the difference between a couple of hours of security mitigation and several weeks or more. Ransomware spreads very quickly, and the longer you wait to quarantine it, the more damage it can cause.
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are an essential tool that many businesses use to take a more proactive stance when managing dangerous attacks like ransomware. These solutions work in real-time to notify security teams as potential malicious activity happens on a network, giving them the precious time needed to investigate and contain new threats.
Execute a Thorough Situation Assessment
After you’ve discovered a cyber breach attempt or have contained an attack, the most critical next step to take is to conduct a thorough situation assessment. This is your opportunity to trace the steps that an attacker took, understand what areas were affected, and the impact it’s caused to the business. Gathering this information helps you to prioritize recovery efforts effectively.
An important piece to this puzzle is understanding the type of malware you’re dealing with. Since there are many different ransomware variants, knowing what format it is will give your recovery teams the necessary information to deal with it as quickly as possible.
Understand the Legal Implications of an Attack
It is imperative that you clearly understand any legal or regulatory responsibilities you have as a business following a ransomware incident. Many different industries have strict rules that help to govern how businesses manage threats and communicate to customers who may have had their data compromised during an attack.
Whether you were able to confirm if any customer data was compromised or not, many compliance mandates still stipulate that there are certain disclosures that need to be made public to customers.
Reviewing these standards helps ensure you have clearly documented policies if you become a victim of a ransomware attack and assists you in taking appropriate actions as you move forward.
Work With Experienced Security Experts
Cybersecurity is an always-changing field with new information and technology that support it regularly being released. Because of this, many organizations find a lot of value in teaming up with outside security experts.
Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and penetration testing services are a great way for growing organizations to scale their security capabilities without needing to invest heavily in staffing. These professional services give businesses immediate access to years of cybersecurity experience, handled by trained teams with access to the latest cutting-edge cybersecurity tools.
Weigh All Your Data Recovery Options
A successful recovery hinges on knowing all the possible ways to get your systems back to a safe, operational state. In a perfect world, your company is already creating regular, up-to-date backups of all your critical applications and data. Having these on hand means you can start a manual data recovery process right away when needed.
The worst-case scenario is discovering you don't have recent backups, or even worse, that your backups were corrupted in the attack. While some businesses consider paying the ransom in this situation, this should be treated as a last resort. Giving in to the demands gives you no guarantee that you’ll ever get your files back and only increases the likelihood of being targeted again.
In these challenging situations, your best bet is to consult with professional data recovery specialists. They can help you walk through the available alternatives, including the costs and estimated timelines for a full recovery.
Follow the Steps for Restoring Your Systems
Once you've decided on the best path to get your systems back online, you’ll want to start executing on your recovery efforts. This is where having an already documented recovery plan in place is invaluable. You should have already identified the key individuals involved in the process.
Coordinate with your internal team and any external partners to map out the order of recovery initiatives you want to take, starting with your most business-critical systems. Your primary goal here is to help get your company’s operations back to a stable, functioning state as quickly as possible. Before you restore from any backup, however, it’s important to verify it's completely clean of any malware to prevent an immediate reinfection.
Maintain Stronger Cybersecurity Posture
Ransomware is a real threat that every business needs to take seriously. However, it doesn't have to be a source of constant fear.
When you take the time to understand the potential risks and implement deliberate, proactive measures to defend your operations, you can confidently face this and other security challenges that come up in the future.
Author Bio:
Nazy Fouladirad is President and COO of Tevora, a global leading cybersecurity consultancy. She has dedicated her career to creating a more secure business and online environment for organizations across the country and world. She is passionate about serving her community and acts as a board member for a local nonprofit organization.
