Ransomware is becoming and increasing part of the dangers of doing business online. We hear of ransomware attacks bringing down hospital systems, local governments, and even key pieces of infrastructure.
Part of doing business today is being connected to the Internet. While many great resources exist, viruses and other bad actors also lurk and try to compromise systems whenever they can. Once compromised, a way to inflict pain is using Ransomware, or software that holds files on a computer hostage until a ransom is paid to the attacker.
How Attacks Start
Ransomware attacks can start with an un-patched system, a vulnerable application, or other minor security issues. One flaw alone usually doesn’t let the attackers in, it’s usually a number of seemingly minor issues that stack together to allow full exploitation.
Once a bad actor gets a small foothold in your network, they will work to spread the attack to where it can do the most damage. If you’re files are located on a central server, they’ll usually try to find that server and encrypt the files there.
Guarding against these attacks can take a number of forms, from ensuring software is always up to date on your network, to segmentation and isolating certain resources, to detecting malicious traffic entering your network. It takes many pieces working together to successfully stop an attack.
The Damage Attacks Can Do
Once your files are compromised, there’s a number of issues that come up. First is the obvious, without your files you are unlikely to be able to conduct business normally. Things typically can grind to a halt pretty quickly.
Attacks are also starting to send the files back to the attackers as well. Things like trade secrets, employee records, and anything else you store on your computers can be compromised and sold to the highest bidder.
How Gateway Systems Can Help
Preventing ransomware begins with good security hygiene and implementing best practices. Gateway Systems can help manage your servers to ensure they are always up to date and help ensure your disaster recovery plans are up to snuff, if a virus does break out. We know security is a full-time job, and we take our customer’s security seriously.
