What steps can I take to protect my business against Ransomware?

You will no doubt have seen on the news recently a number of large scale cyberattacks using Ransomware to encrypt computers and data. This will no doubt lead you to have concerns around the security of your own IT systems. At Complete I.T. we want to try and provide you with the information you need to keep your businesses fully protected.

There are many ways that Malware can find its way into a network, these include

• An infected email attachment or link: double clicking the attachment will infect the machine you are on with Ransomware, equally clicking a link can have the same affect, therefore user education is vital to reduce the likelihood of this happening
• A Brute Force attack: this is where a hacker will keep attempting (guessing) a username and password to gain access to IT systems, so a strong password policy is vital to stop these types of attacks
• Visiting websites which have been infected with a Ransomware payload: this is then downloaded to your machine, therefore a web-filtering type service is important to reduce this as the source of any infection

How do I prevent against Ransomware?

There are really 2 ways to keep yourself safe and secure and protected from Ransomware

• The first is Good Security Hygiene
• The second is educating your users to be vigilant and know what to look out for

Good Security Hygiene

Complete I.T. recommend the following security is in place to help prevent against Ransomware

1. Ensure your Antivirus software is up to date on all of your machines.
2. Ensure that your machine has all of the latest Windows Updates Installed
3. Ensure that you have a ‘complex’ password in place (i.e. 10 characters with a mix of upper and lowercase letter and numbers)
4. Ensure you have an account lock out policy in place (i.e. if you put the wrong password in 5 times or more, the account will be locked out) – speak to your technical consultant if you are unsure
5. Ensure you have a good quality firewall in place
6. Where possible remove administration rights from users, this will stop them running executable files such as Crypto locker
7. Use a web site filtering product to protect against visiting and downloading viruses from the internet

User Education

Protect against Ransomware by educating your teams

• You need to educate your users not to open emails and attachments that don’t look genuine
• You need to educate your users on being vigilant and keeping an eye out for suspicious activity

In the unfortunate event that you are hit by Ransomware, the likelihood is that you will need to recover your IT systems from backup. The most important thing to do if you think you have been affected by Ransomware is to make sure you do not reboot your machine without speaking to your IT Support providers or someone in IT first. Ensuring that you have an effective Business Continuity or backup solution in place that works and is easily and quickly restorable is critical. Whilst this has always been important, the rise of Ransomware means that this is more important than ever – please speak to us if you have any concerns surrounding the backup of your data.

If you do have any questions or concerns on any of the above then please contact Complete I.T. to book a meeting on 01628 552 860 or email enquiries@complete-it.co.uk

Complete I.T. are an IT Support Provider focusing on the SME market, we believe being local to our clients and able to get to them quickly and easily at critical times is key. As a consultative business, we work closely with our clients to ensure they meet their business goals whilst building an open and honest relationship with all team members.

Learn more about Complete I.T.’s Cyber Security solutions.