Industry insights

How London's IT Leaders can prevent a Ransomware Attack - Conosco

Written by Conosco | Sep 1, 2016 1:49:47 PM

Ransomware is on the rise. How can IT support departments and business owners prevent a ransomware attack and potentially save the business?

Did you know?

  • 54% of organisations in the UK have been targeted by ransomware attacks (Osterman Research, June 2016).
  • 20% of these cases were so violent that business stopped immediately.
  • The most targeted industries were the healthcare and finance sectors.
  • 39% of organisations hit by ransomware said it came through an email.
  • Cyber criminals target employees because they are considered the weakest link.

What you can do to prevent an attack

  • DO NOT OPEN unsolicited email attachments or links. Ransomware is often embedded in documents.
  • Educate your employees –  provide them with clear instructions (see our checklist here) on what to do if they encounter a potential ransomware lure
  • Maintain clear inventories of your company’s digital assets and their locations, so cyber criminals do not attack a system you are unaware of.

What Conosco can do

  • We recommend the use of an email gateway such as Mimecast to filter out potential threats before they even get to your mail system.
  • We implement web-filtering to control the sites users can access and block connections to malicious hosts.
  • We keep all your software up to date, including operating systems and applications.
  • We run secure, frequent backups of your information so that it can be restored if encrypted.
  • We monitor the antivirus solution on your machine daily, ensuring:
    • it is installed and active
    • virus definitions are up to date 

If you need help to prevent a ransomware attack, or with any other aspects of your IT security, the experts at Conosco are on hand to help. Book a free consultation here.