Tag: ransomware attacks

Business

Is Your Organization at Risk? 71% of Companies Have Experienced Ransomware Attacks

Jan 12, 2024 by Sujata Muguda 0 Comments #Check Point Software Technologies, #Harish Kumar GS, #ransomware attacks, #SAARC

Harish Kumar (1)

By Harish Kumar GS, Head of Sales, India and SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies

Ransomware is becoming the new business model for cybercriminals looking to search for funds for their organisation.

In an era where digital threats loom large, a startling 71% of organizations have found themselves besieged by ransomware, with the financial fallout averaging a hefty $4.35 million per breach. This isn’t just a sporadic skirmish in cyberspace; it’s an all-out war against corporate defenses. As businesses scramble to fortify their digital ramparts, the question isn’t just about dealing with ransomware—it’s about understanding why and how it has become such a formidable adversary.

Understanding Ransomware and Its Impacts

Ransomware isn’t just a low-risk intrusion into your systems; it’s a predator holding vital data hostage and demanding a ransom for its release.

The repercussions extend far beyond mere inconvenience. Financial hemorrhage is just the start—operational paralysis, compromised customer trust, and long-term reputational damage are the real specters haunting businesses post-attack. The dreaded ripple effect of a ransomware incursion can echo through every corridor of an organization, leaving a trail of operational and strategic chaos in its wake.

In 2022, India witnessed a 53% increase in ransomware incidents compared to the previous year, as reported by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). AIIMS Attack, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh power utility systems attack, UHBVN Ransomware Attack, WannaCry ransomware attack, Mirai Botnet Malware Attack and BSNL Malware Attack were few ransomware attacks in India that have further highlighted the need for a robust strategy.

Addressing this challenge requires more than reactive measures; it necessitates a proactive, layered defense strategy. This includes deploying advanced technology and cultivating a cyber security-aware culture, aimed at thwarting and neutralizing ransomware tactics.

Check Point’s Multi-Layered Ransomware Defense

In the digital battleground against ransomware, Check Point emerges as a vanguard, offering a range of solutions designed to shield every corner of your organization. Picture a security system engineered to anticipate, adapt, and annihilate ransomware threats. At the heart of Check Point’s strategy is a multi-layered defense mechanism, tailored to fortify endpoints, mobile devices, emails, and network perimeters.

Pioneering Endpoint Security

The first line of defense is at the endpoint. Check Point’s Harmony Endpoint deploys runtime protection, standing guard against ransomware attacks even in offline mode. Its Behavioral Guard is designed to effectively detect, block, and remediate any ransomware activity. In the event of an anomaly, Harmony Endpoint quickly identifies and neutralizes the threat, ensuring system integrity and preventing potential damage.

Fortifying the Mobile Frontier

Then there’s the mobile frontier—an area increasingly exploited by cybercriminals. Harmony Mobile steps in as a shield, blocking malicious downloads and scanning for lurking threats in mobile apps. It’s a comprehensive solution, ensuring your mobile workforce remains a bastion of productivity, not a vulnerability.

Safeguarding Digital Communication

Harmony Email & Collaboration uses advanced sandboxing to snare and neutralize ransomware-laden emails before they ever reach an inbox. This barrier extends across productivity apps like Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, ensuring that ransomware can’t leapfrog across your organization.

Shielding The Network

Quantum Security Gateways act as a comprehensive defense against external cyber threats. These gateways are not limited to reactive measures; they proactively use advanced AI to identify and halt zero-day threats and phishing attempts.

Best Practices for Ransomware Prevention

The battle against ransomware isn’t just about deploying the right tools; it’s also about cultivating the right habits. Prevention, in the cyber world, is a mix of vigilance, education, and strategic foresight.

Cyber Awareness Training

Train your workforce in cyber security basics, including phishing recognition and password security. To ensure your team remains alert and prepared, it’s vital to keep them updated with the latest developments in cyber security threats.

Regular Data Backups

Implement routine, encrypted backups of key data as a fail-safe. Ensure these backups are tested regularly for reliability and effective restoration.

System Patching

Maintain a disciplined regimen of system updates, focusing on security patches to protect against vulnerabilities. Continually enhance your patch management process.

Robust Endpoint Protection

Employ sophisticated antivirus and antimalware programs like the Check Point suite to ensure ongoing, real-time surveillance and detection of potential threats. Keep these solutions updated to tackle new ransomware and cyber security threats.

Protection is a responsibility

As ransomware evolves into more sophisticated forms, protecting your organization is not just a necessity, it’s a responsibility. Check Point’s whitepaper offers a deep dive into advanced strategies and solutions to shield your network, endpoints, mobile and web browsers, email, and collaboration tools. It’s an invaluable resource for CISOs and security teams committed to staying ahead of cyber threats.

News

Barracuda Researchers highlights the spike in ransomware attacks on the back of COVID-19 pandemic and remote working scenario

Aug 28, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Barracuda Networks, #Country Manager-India, #Murali Urs, #ransomware attacks, #remote working

India, Friday, August 28, 2020: Barracuda Networks, a trusted partner and a leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, highlights the spike in ransomware attacks on the back of COVID-19 pandemic and remote working scenario. Barracuda researchers have identified and analysed 71 ransomware incidents wreaking havoc on government, healthcare, and education organisations.

Although ransomware has been around for more than two decades, the threat has been growing rapidly in recent years. Cybercriminals use malicious software, delivered as an email attachment or link, to infect the network and lock email, data, and other critical files until a ransom is paid. These evolving and sophisticated attacks are damaging and costly. They can cripple day-to-day operations, cause chaos, and result in financial losses from downtime, ransom payments, recovery costs, and other unbudgeted and unanticipated expenses.

In addition to stealing data, encrypting files, and demanding ransom, cybercriminals are also demanding payment from victims, to avoid publicly disclosing information obtained that could cause public humiliation, legal issues, and hefty fines. Many cybercriminals are now combining the use of ransomware and data breaches to double the leverage over their victims in this way. Of the attacks studied, 41 per cent were a combined ransomware attack and data breach. If the ransom is not paid, victims’ data is dumped on the threat actors’ servers or auctioned off on the dark web.

Cybercriminals are now setting their sights on education and healthcare. The steady attacks on healthcare are no surprise, as a variety of cybersecurity threats and attacks related to the pandemic have been widely reported. Attacks on education, including institutions of higher learning, include the theft of personal information and medical records, as well as healthcare research. Logistics-related attacks are also on the rise. These attacks on logistics companies can seriously hamper the ability to move goods, including medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and everyday products.

Speaking on the threat spotlight, Murali Urs, Country Manager-India, Barracuda Networks, commented “With the pandemic forcing millions of workers to switch to a completely remote working model in such a short space of time, it brought with it a myriad of security challenges for businesses. Cybercriminals have taken it as an opportunity to access a massive attack vector. The weak security of home networks makes it easier for them to compromise them, move laterally to business networks, and launch ransomware attacks. Foreseeing their innovative and adaptive nature, we at Barracuda Networks are delivering innovative security products that are easy to deploy and can ensure to safeguard companies and individuals against the attacks.”

The rapidly evolving email threat environment requires advanced inbound and outbound security techniques that go beyond the traditional gateway. This would include closing the technical and human gaps, to maximise security and minimise the risk of falling victim to sophisticated ransomware attacks.

While many malicious emails appear convincing, spam filters, phishing-detection systems, and related security software can pick up subtle clues and help block potentially threatening messages and attachments from reaching email inboxes.

An advanced network firewall capable of malware analysis can provide a chance to stop a user from opening malicious attachment or links to a drive-by download by flagging the executable as it tries to pass through.

For emails with malicious documents attached, both static and dynamic analysis can pick up on indicators that the document is trying to download and run an executable, which no document should ever be doing. The URL for the executable can often be flagged using heuristics or threat intelligence systems.

Spammers are increasingly using their own infrastructure and often use the same IPs long enough for software to detect and add them to blocklists. Even with hacked sites and botnets, once a large enough volume of spam has been detected, it’s possible to temporarily block attacks by IP.

Organisations can make phishing simulation part of security awareness training to ensure that their employees can identify and avoid attacks. Meanwhile, in the event of a ransomware attack, a cloud backup solution can minimize downtime, prevent data loss, and restore the systems quickly, whether the files are on physical devices, in virtual environments, or the public cloud. The 3-2-1 rule of backup must be followed with three copies of files on two different media types with at least one offsite to avoid having backups affected by a ransomware attack.