Ransomware mitigation

Ransomware mitigation involves developing a plan to prevent a ransomware attack by determining possible weaknesses, developing security processes and procedures, educating employees and third-parties on prevention and how to react when an attack is suspected, and creating an incident response plan to quickly and effectively respond to an attack in a manner that minimizes its impact. In this post, we discuss the benefits of ransomware mitigation and how ransomware mitigation helps enterprises protect data, employees, and the company.

Why enterprises need ransomware mitigation

A ransomware mitigation plan enables the enterprise to protect its data, its employees, and the organization as a whole. Ransomware is one of the most challenging threats to defend against, and given the growing magnitude of the threat, every organization is at risk. A risk mitigation plan supports the enterprise in taking proactive steps to identify and address gaps in its defenses.

Protecting data

Protecting data is a key aspect of an overall cybersecurity strategy, and it’s especially important when it comes to ransomware mitigation efforts. A ransomware infection can affect not only data availability but also the privacy and integrity of the data.

Ransomware operators commonly use double-extortion schemes—not only encrypting data for ransom but also stealing it to compel victims to pay if they don’t want their sensitive data leaked.

Additionally, the encryption and decryption process may alter or even destroy the data.

Protecting employees

Protecting employees from becoming victims of a ransomware attack is just as important as protecting data. Employees may be an easy target for malicious actors. Often, through a combination of social engineering and brute force entry, these actors turn employees into unknowing participants in the malicious scheme and use the employees to gain access into organizational systems.

Protecting the organization

Ransomware mitigation efforts enable organizational protection from a variety of consequences, ranging from financial losses to reputational damage. This is especially true if the company is publicly traded and must answer to board members, shareholders, and governing bodies. Research has also shown that 42% of companies affected by ransomware attacks reported losing customers as a result of the attacks.

The increasing prevalence of ransomware

Ransomware has become a common problem that impacts organizations of all sizes and sectors. One of the growing trends is ransomware-as-a-service, which eliminates the barrier of entry for cybercriminals by providing ready infrastructure, code, and other components for launching an attack without any technical knowledge.

Ransomware also has better return on investment for cybercriminals than other types of attacks. These two factors combined indicate that this threat will likely continue to grow.

Ransomware mitigation and identity security

Identity security is part of an overall cybersecurity strategy that enables ransomware mitigation. SailPoint offers a variety of solutions that help organizations ensure the right users have the right access at the right times. Let us show you how we enable this for enterprises like yours.

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