| 01 |
Train your Users and Test their Knowledge
Since ransomware infections often come through links and attachments inside emails, or from a website or web application, train your users how to recognises phishing attacks and suspicious links and attachments. Training is only part of the story. Admins must also make sure to regularly test their users with simulated phishing attacks to ensure that your users have been properly conditioned to resist these attacks.
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| 02 |
Monitor your Network
Diligently monitor your network by analysing your logs, clearing out alerts, and processing potential threat feeds. If the infection is detected quickly and the workstation is disabled immediately, you can recover the data within 24 hours, and often in as quickly as five minutes. Organisations should constantly update the operating system and other software on their systems with the latest patches. Unpatched vulnerabilities in operating systems and software are a common entry point for malware.
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| 03 |
Maintain Device & Data Security for Mobile Users
To support BYOD and reduce the risk to your business it is crucial to put a policy in place that ensures the security of all corporate/employee owned devices. In doing so it will allow you to keep an inventory of all devices and applications, enforce configurations and limit the number of features that can be installed whilst monitoring/controlling user and device access to internal systems all of which provide device and data security for both the employee and employer.
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| 04 |
Commercial Grade Anti-Virus Protection
The best way to steer clear of viruses and malware is to use an industry-leading anti-virus software solution. There are many types out there, and they don’t have to break the bank, but having a superior level of defense will go a long way. On your anti-virus software, enable the auto update, auto-protect, and personal firewall features to ensure you always have protection in the background that is continually updated.
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| 05 |
Lock Down Suspicious Email Attachments
Organisations may also want to install advanced email spam filtering which will block email messages with attachments from suspicious sources. Admins can filter executable attachments in emails based on the file extensions (e.g., block emails sent with “.EXE” attachments). Admins should also disable macros embedded within attachments and re-enable the display to full file extensions which makes it way easier to spot suspicious files.
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| 06 |
Have an Incident Response Plan
How you’ve prepared will determine how quickly you are able to restore your company’s data and get systems functioning again. This starts with a well-designed plan that is understood by the entire team. Practice executing the plan to ensure you are able to get systems back online in the expected time-frame. The practice will also give your team the confidence to perform flawlessly when the need arises.
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