With ransomware incidents growing at an alarming rate, organizations require backup and recovery tools that defend against these threats and enable organizations to quickly recover from attacks. Many backup and recovery tools now incorporate ransomware protection; although, these products differ in how they safeguard against these cyberthreats.
Luckily, Maddlogic can help you set up your organizations, to create backups for the routine part of your data protection strategy, and many rely on backup and recovery tools that automate replication processes and ensure secure and reliable restores, should they become necessary. But these tools alone aren’t enough to defend against ransomware, unless they specifically incorporate ransomware protection.
HOW DOES RANSOMWARE WORKS?
The ransomware assault follows the steps below after a device is infected with malicious code. Ransomware can lie dormant on a device until it is most susceptible, at which point it will launch an attack.
A seven-stage ransomware attack
Infection—Ransomware is downloaded and installed on the device without the user’s knowledge.
Execution—Ransomware analyzes and maps locations for specified file types, including locally stored files and network-accessible systems that are mapped and unmapped. In certain ransomware attacks, backup files and folders are also deleted or encrypted.
Encryption—Ransomware exchanges a key with the Command and Control Server, then scrambles all files detected during the Execution stage with the encryption key. It also restricts access to the information.
User Notification—Ransomware adds instruction files that outline the pay-for-decryption process, then utilizes those files to show the user a ransom note.
Cleanup—Ransomware normally ends up terminating and deleting itself, leaving only the payment instructions files behind.
Payment—The victim follows the payment instructions and clicks on a link that leads to a web page.
Decryption—The victim may obtain the decryption key after paying the ransom, which is normally done via the attacker’s Bitcoin address. There is no guarantee, however, that the decryption key will be sent on time.
RANSOMWARE PROTECTION
Here are some best practices for preventing and protecting your organization from Ransomware infections:
1. Endpoint Security
Antivirus is an apparent first line of defense against ransomware, however traditional antivirus software can only protect against a limited number of ransomware variants.
2. Data backup
Using versioning control and the 3-2-1 rule, backup data to an external hard drive on a regular basis (create three backup copies on two different media with one backup stored in a separate location). Disconnect the hard disk from the device if feasible to avoid the backup data from being encrypted.
3. Patch management
Install security fixes and keep the device’s operating system and installed applications up to date. Run vulnerability scans to find known vulnerabilities and swiftly fix them.
4. Application Control
Set up device restrictions that allow you to restrict the apps loaded on the device to a centrally managed whitelist. To prevent people from visiting harmful websites, increase browser security settings, disable Adobe Flash and other susceptible browser plugins, and employ web filtering. Word processing and other vulnerable apps should have macros disabled.
5. Email Protection
Employees should be trained to spot social engineering emails, and exercises should be conducted to see if they can detect and avoid phishing. Use spam and endpoint protection technology to automatically block questionable emails, as well as harmful links, if the user clicks on them.
Security and resiliency controls in Google Cloud
Google Cloud includes built-in security and resiliency controls to help protect customers against ransomware attacks. These controls include the following:
- Global infrastructure designed with security throughout the information-processing lifecycle.
- Built-in security features for Google Cloud products and services, such as monitoring, threat detection, data loss prevention, and access controls.
- High availability with regional clusters and global load balancers.
- Built-in backup, with easily scalable services.
- Automation capabilities using Infrastructure as Code and configuration guardrails.
- Google Cloud Threat Intelligence for Chronicle and VirusTotal track and respond to many types of malware, including ransomware, across Google infrastructure and products. Google Cloud Threat Intelligence for Chronicle is a team of threat researchers that develop threat intelligence for Chronicle. VirusTotal is a malware database and visualization solution that provides you with a better understanding of how malware operates within your enterprise.
Security and resiliency controls in Google Workspace, Chrome browser, and Chromebooks
The following Chromebook features help to protect against phishing and ransomware attacks:
- Read-only operating system (Chrome OS). This system is designed to update constantly and invisibly. Chrome OS helps protect against the most recent vulnerabilities and includes controls that ensure that applications and extensions can’t modify it.
- Sandboxing. Each application runs in an isolated environment, so one harmful application can’t easily infect other applications.
- Verified boot. While the Chromebook is booting, it is designed to check that the system hasn’t been modified.
- Safe Browsing. Chrome periodically downloads the most recent Safe Browsing list of unsafe sites. It is designed to check the URLs of each site that a user visits and checks each file that a user downloads against this list.
- Titan C security chips. These chips help protect users from phishing attacks by enabling two-factor authentication and they protect the operating system from malicious tampering.
Ransomware Defense with these 5 Data backups
- Acronis Cyber Protect
- Acronis Active Protection, a powerful anti-ransomware technology that actively safeguards all data, including documents, media files, applications, and backup files, is included in the Acronis Cyber Protect comprehensive cybersecurity and backup platform.
The technology identifies and terminates ransomware assaults, then restores corrupted files fast and automatically, regardless of their size.
- Asigra
- The Asigra data backup and recovery platform offers a set of technologies for safeguarding vital data, such as applications and databases, in an enterprise. One of these products protects against ransomware and attack loop cyberthreats explicitly. When backing up files, the platform checks them in real time, isolating harmful code and alerting admins. To prevent viruses from recognizing and removing file repositories, Asigra renames them in nonstandard formats.
- Signatureless malware detection engines included within the Asigra platform identify and quarantine illegal or malicious embedded code, preventing it from infiltrating backup and replication streams. To delete backups, the platform also requires two-factor verification.
- Carbonite
- Carbonite’s data security platform is made up of numerous different products. Carbonite Endpoint and Carbonite Server are two of the tools that provide backup and recovery for endpoint and server data. Carbonite can safeguard both physical and virtual workloads, and it can restore files, folders, and applications in complete or in pieces. The platform also has capabilities that ensure business continuity and cyber resiliency, such as ransomware recovery.
- Customers can use the platform’s incremental recovery feature to restore just new or altered files after a ransomware attack. Individual files, directories, and even entire systems can be restored.
- Veeam backup and Replication
- Is a software tool that protects data across physical, virtual, and cloud environments for any application or type of data. With support for snapshots, image-based replication, and clever backup data reuse, this utility can swiftly recover files, VMs, programs, and NAS. The software also has anti-ransomware features and provides immutable backups to help protect against ransomware and other attacks.
- Veeam’s customer service staff can help you recover data after a ransomware attack. Customers can get assistance from the team in determining whether it’s okay to restore data and which safety precautions to take. Veeam also sells a ransomware protection kit that teaches businesses how to avoid, identify, and recover data from ransomware attacks.
- Zerto
- Zerto also protects against intrusions like ransomware in real time. If the platform senses an assault, it locks down the file and makes point-in-time restores available quickly. Organizations can also use the platform to quickly recover from cyberattacks with minimal disruption to their operations.
- With only a few clicks, businesses may recover from a ransomware attack to a specific moment in time, immediately before the attack. They can also only recover the data they require, whether it’s a few files, many virtual machines, or a whole application stack. Customers can also test their recovered programs and data to guarantee that any corruptions are gone.
Cyberattacks are rampant across all industries. With new malware variants discovered each day, businesses need to make sure their endpoints are secure by employing the right security controls. It’s a good thing for business owners to consider installing ransomware protection solutions in addition to following the best practices described above to increase their systems’ defenses against ransomware assaults.
Now is the perfect time to prevent ransomware with a custom inline cloud security platform now! Solutions like advanced threat protection or endpoint detection and response provide behavior-based detection and blocking of ransomware attacks that go beyond the limitations of signature-based detection of known malware. Implementing custom solutions mitigates the risk of ransomware because we minimize the exposure to data breaches. Since it’s stored on a secure database protected by user credentials. See how MaddLogic delivers unmatched ransomware protection to stop and contain attacks. Visit our website at www.maddlogic.com or call us at (682) 582-6504.
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