Ransomware attacks have become a significant threat to businesses and organizations worldwide, causing disruption to operations and reputational damage because of data exfiltration.
Attackers usually take advantage of an organization’s poor cybersecurity hygiene, from infrequent patching to failure to implement multifactor authentication. In fact, 68 percent of organizations impacted by ransomware did not have effective vulnerability and patch management process.
Here are 5 steps provided by Microsoft Security to help fortify defenses and prevent ransomware attacks:
1. Secure identity infrastructure
It is essential to secure the identity infrastructure by implementing privileged access management (PAM) solutions. PAM solutions allow customers to monitor and manage privileged accounts, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to critical systems and data.
2. Review overprivileged accounts
Threat actors can at times gain privileged administrative control over an organization's environment. Here it becomes important to limit the number of privileged accounts and ensure that they are only granted to authorized personnel who need them. Organizations should establish a privileged access policy and regularly review it and remove any unnecessary accounts or permissions.
3. Revisit patch management
Lack of effective patch management allows threat actors to gain initial access through vulnerabilities. Regular patching of systems, applications, and devices is critical to reducing the risk of exploitation by threat actors.
4. Strengthen remote access management
Threat actors can deploy various remote access tools to establish persistence in an organization's environment. To tackle this, organizations should restrict remote access to critical systems and data, use multi-factor authentication, and monitor remote access sessions for suspicious activity.
5. Engage expert guidance
Ransomware attacks can be complex and challenging to deal with, and customers need expert guidance to ensure that they respond effectively. Customers should engage with incident response experts to develop a comprehensive incident response plan and ensure that security personnel are trained to respond to ransomware incidents.
