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Ransomware remains a growing threat to any organization, with one estimate suggesting 15.45% of all internet users experienced at least one malware-based attack during 20211 . Unsurprisingly, cybersecurity is an increasingly important strategic priority for businesses.

This guide acts as a practical checklist, helping you to assess how wellprotected you are against ransomware at the network edge – and where you must improve your defenses – including:

• Stopping ransomware before it can proliferate is extremely important. The quicker an infection is identified and blocked, the less damage and disruption it will be able to cause. Generally, your organization can catch malware that has been emailed directly to employees at the mail server – but this does not stop them being tricked into downloading external executables with a well-crafted spear phishing message
• Endpoint configuration will also help to reduce the potential effect of a ransomware infection. For corporate-issued devices: • Use application directory allowlisting to ensure that employees can only run authorized software. With the right restriction in place, they cannot install applications – reducing the chance of running infected executables. • Ensure that endpoint security tools – and any other installed software – is set to update automatically to block new threats and close potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited6.
• Once files have been encrypted, there are two options: pay the ransom or recover “clean” copies of the files from backup. Which means having a robust, reliable backup routine for your endpoint devices too. In an ideal deployment, employees would not have the option to store corporate data locally. But the reality is that they probably will save documents to the local drive, often to the Downloads folder or Desktop
• The more data and applications held on an endpoint device, the more potential vulnerabilities there are to exploit. And the more attractive that machine becomes to hackers. So by reducing the amount of applications and data held locally, the less impact a ransomware infection will have.

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