In June this year, the U.K.-based National Health System (NHS) suffered a ransomware attack that compromised over 1 million patient records. Stillwater Mining found over 7,000 employee-related records had been stolen using RansomHub, a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform. The mining company only discovered the sophisticated attack months later.
Ransomware attacks are growing in complexity and sophistication in 2024. Hackers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to make their attacks more effective. From isolated rogue attacks, ransomware is being deployed as state-sponsored attacks targeted at a specific business entity or industry.
An example is Iran-based hackers launching ransomware attacks on U.S.-based companies, including healthcare agencies, in 2024. This group of cybercriminals allegedly collaborated with the Russia-based ransomware group RansomHub.
As bad actors design new ransomware tactics, organizations must also step up their cyber defense. Let’s discuss how.
How organizations can defend against ransomware
Business enterprises can deploy various safety measures to defend themselves from a ransomware attack. Here are some of the best practices:
1. Perform regular data backups. Most ransomware attacks target organizational data—particularly sensitive data like customer information, financial data, and medical records. As a best practice, perform data backups regularly to store your critical data on external data centers or on the cloud. Backup tools ensure that in the event of a ransomware or data breach, your data is restored quickly – thus causing minimal disruption to your business operations.
2. Update your operating systems and applications. Hackers direct their ransomware attacks towards outdated software tools and systems – or those that are still using older or non-supported versions. This is because these systems are more likely to be carrying security-related vulnerabilities or bugs, which can be easily exploited.
As a security practice, make sure that you update your software systems, including operating systems, web browsers, and business applications, to the latest version. As hackers release sophisticated ransomware variants, software solutions (using the latest version) are more likely to contain the security fix (or patch) to thwart these attacks.
3. Secure your email application.
35% of ransomware attacks originate from email messages. Around 1.2% of all sent emails are malicious, thus translating into around 3.4 billion phishing emails daily. Ransomware can infect the user’s device whenever the email recipient
Organizations can secure their email tools from ransomware with the following practices:
4. Implement endpoint security.
Cybercriminals are accessing enterprise networks through multiple endpoints like servers, user’s laptops, and even smartphones. Additionally, with the adoption of remote work, security professionals have the added “headache” of securing devices (external to their organizational network).
Through endpoint security, enterprises can now secure their internal and external systems from ransomware attacks. Endpoint detection and response systems can provide a host of security features like:
Conclusion
In 2024 and going forward, modern enterprises can only expect ransomware attacks to become more dangerous and sophisticated. While there is no 100% guarantee for preventing ransomware, enterprises can protect their data and systems by following the practices outlined in this blog.
At Lisianthus Tech, we have built years of expertise in helping enterprises defend against various cyberattacks, including ransomware. Contact us if you are looking to partner with a reliable IT security service provider.