This can check and prevent common malware when staff are browsing the Internet. Many of these companies also offer web filtering. Consider using an external mail filtering company for spam filtering and malware filtering. Ensure that antivirus is managed centrally, with someone regularly checking that all PCs have up-to-date signatures and that staff are not disabling antivirus features. Many organisations have antivirus software installed on all PCs, however at Dionach we often find PCs with antivirus definitions that are quite out of date or have important features such as on-access scanning disabled. If the backups are to another hard disk or to the cloud and the backups are accessible on the network, then even if it is offsite, this may still be accessed and encrypted by ransomware. Regularly test backups to see if they can be restored. Make sure you have regular backups that are tested and are kept offline. Having overlapping security controls means that if one layer is penetrated, the other layers may prevent a breach. To reduce the risk of getting affected by ransomware and to limit the damage if affected, there are layers of security that you can make sure you have in place.

For a typical organisation with staff having access to multiple documents on shared drives, a CryptoLocker incident can mean serious damage and lost resource, even if the organisation has backups, pays the ransom or manages to find another way to clean up the problem. CryptoLocker encrypts documents on the computer, shared network drives and connected devices, and then demands a payment in bitcoins to decrypt the files. Ransomware will either encrypt files, make the computer unusable or make threats, all to extort money to fix the problem. Ransomware such as CryptoLocker typically gets onto your PC either through a phishing email or a web site hosting malware.

What is a crypto locker risk assessment