What's The Best Way To Prevent Ransomware Attacks?

Experts across the board agree: The best way to prevent ransomware attacks is to take a multi-layered approach. Since the first phase in a ransomware attack almost always involves social engineering, employee cyber security training is a good place to start. But if attackers get in, you’ll need to be able to recover from an attack. Make regular offline backups (and practice restoring them) so you can get back to business quickly.

- Ong Xiang Hong

Whatever you do, don’t just do nothing. Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and no organisation is too small to escape attackers’ notice. Plus, since some victims make large ransomware payments to get their data back, ransomware has proven to be profitable, so the problem will only get worse. Some experts even suggest that the best way to prevent ransomware attacks is for the government to make it illegal to pay ransoms.

Here, Synopsys Software Integrity Group gathered opinions from experts to figure out best advice and practices, in case the worst happens.

PREVENT RANSOMWARE WITH END-TO-END SECURITY MEASURES The best strategy to deal with ransomware must include both preventive and recovery measures. As any security professional will agree, the first thing everyone must do is keep their systems up to date. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to properly defend unpatched systems against ransomware or any form of malware.