13 Feb The Millionaire Dollar Lesson: Ransomware Strikes Back

It pays to be prepared, literally

We can’t stress the importance of protecting your network, company, and enterprise data enough from ransomware attacks, because failing to do so can cost you millions. One such unnamed company will stand as a testament to cybersecurity negligence, on top of how disastrous and dangerous ransomware is. 

The story is familiar to those acquainted with ransomware: a targeted company network found itself infected with the malware type and coerced to pay a ransom. Otherwise, the hijackers threatened to publish the data. You see and read about this frequently if you keep up with cybercrime or similar events.

Typically, what a company should do is a series of things: analyze the damage and determine how the ransomware attack occurred. That way, if they decide to pay the ransom (also common) they can protect themselves from similar attacks, or at least identify the threat pattern. It enables them to better protect their digital assets. In fact, sounds like common sense, right? When you get sick and see a doctor, you usually follow their advice so you don’t fall ill again.

That’s not what happened.

Fool me twice?

In the wake of the attack, the organization did indeed pay the ransom. Then, two weeks later, the same ransomware exploiting the same tactics did it all over. The company was, once more, forced to pay the ransom a second time. One word: ouch.

It’s not an exaggeration to say this became a million-dollar fiasco. Learn their lesson and don’t let it happen to you. But how?

It’s both simple and complex. The goal is simple: prevent ransomware by analyzing the issues that occurred in the first place. Cyber insurers say that while data recovery is priority one, understanding the systemic weaknesses allowing the attack to happen in the first place is vastly more important. 

That’s because malware, especially ransomware, has to penetrate network layers through different means to manufacture a back door. This is often done with phishing, brute force attacks, or locating weak points in the network’s software. If it got in, that means the safe zones in a business network (or any network) is not secured. This is doubly important to shore up as more enterprises rely on remote working and remote connections to complete tasks.

It’s arguable that before network and data recovery locating the threat zones is more important. In the discussed example, that demonstrates quite clearly. Better to do so, since network and data recovery is already a costly process depending on how extensive the damage is. 

Given the average ransomware attack can cost around $1.4 million, adding to recovery and another ransomware attack is a scenario no enterprise wants to deal with.

Defending your network

Preventive measures are the best strategy in these scenarios then. Analyzing how the intrusion(s) occurred and conducting thorough penetration tests are some of the critical ways to thwart future ransomware attacks. And, as you can see, stops the same one from happening again. In most cases, a business can’t afford one ransomware attack, let alone two, so learn from this million-dollar mistake or pay the price.

For additional information and assistance, you can contact Bytagig today.