Your antivirus Keep Your Data Safe from being damaged, turned into garbage or put to work for nefarious purposes. Ransomware protects your data from being captured, locked up and ransomed back to you. Ransomware gets into your system through poor password creation, email links and corrupted documents.
Covered Topics
Education is Key
Your ransomware prevention strategy will be much stronger when your employees are fully trained. Your education package can include
- password requirements
- attachment blocking software
- reminders about suspicious attachments
If your IT department doesn’t have the bench depth to set up ransomware safeguards, or if your IT department needs training as well, consider hiring a company to come in and audit your ransomware risk.
Run a Test
Your employees may have trusted contacts with whom they share documents. If you hire an IT contractor to review your ransomware protections, make employees aware that they may get emails that look similar to the data from those contacts.
Because ransomware often creates a sense of urgency with their messaging, make sure that employees are also aware of any messages that include
- warnings about time limits
- threats against cell numbers or phone availability
- warnings about social security number breaches
Many of these can be obvious frauds, but as ransomware awareness and training grows, ransomware attackers are becoming more subtle. If you or your employees receive emails showing a countdown that must be addressed before a serious data breach occurs, delete the email or notify your ransomware prevention team.
It Only Takes One Click
It only takes one click on one icon to launch ransomware throughout your system. If your employees are allowed to log into social media from their work computers, make sure that they are aware of duplications created to steal financial data on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace.
Many employers have employees that are putting in long hours, both at work and in the office. Limiting social media may cut into the small amount of time these employees can enjoy with family and friends. If possible, consider implementing a policy of no purchases from social media sites from work computers to avoid the real hazard of cross-contamination between credit card data theft on a social media marketplace to credit card theft when buying from your company.
Bad Press
If your company is targeted by ransomware and you have to pay to get your data back, you will need to notify your clients. Your clients may lose confidence in your ability to manage their private data, which may cost you business. Upgrading your system security and boosting your training may be a large investment, but it can increase loyalty and save you from having to pay a large ransom before trying to rebuild your security.
The move to work from home means that many companies are facing even more data risks. To keep your information, employees and client data safe from risk, increase your training and protections before you have to. For more information on the above, you can check out places like Egnyte.
