Written by Red Blog Cyber
Ransomware Prevention part 2
Tips to Mitigate Ransomware Attacks
The increasing prevalence of cybercrime is pushing organizations to rethink their security strategies. Here are some tips that can help you mitigate ransomware attacks.
• Restrict administrative privileges: Use caution when handing out administrative privileges as the admin account has access to everything, including changing configurations or bypassing critical security settings. Always employ the Principle of Least Privilege (PLOP) when granting any type of access.
• Patch applications: If you discover a security flaw, patch it as soon as possible to prevent manipulation and abuse by hackers.
• Use application whitelisting: Application whitelisting is a proactive threat mitigation technique that allows pre-authorized programs to run while all the others stay blocked by default. It helps in identifying illegal attempts to execute malicious code and also prevents unauthorized installations.
• Be wary of emails: Emails are the most vulnerable to ransomware, so it is imperative to ramp up email security. Secure email gateways ensure all email communications get filtered along with activation of URL defenses and attachment sandboxing to identify threats proactively. As much as email phishing scams need prevention, also pay attention to post-delivery protection.
• Provide security awareness training: Since human behavior initiates all ransomware attacks, providing security awareness training is a must for all employees. This training is imperative as it teaches users to distinguish real threats from legitimate data.
• Use MFA: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of security as it requires two or more pieces of evidence to log into remote access solutions, like online banking or other privileged actions, that need sensitive information.
• Employ daily backups: Regular data backups are an integral part of a disaster recovery plan. In the event of a ransomware attack, you can recover and access backed-up data. You can always decrypt your original data by restoring successful backups.
Don’t fall victim to cyber criminals. Always think twice and click once.