The long-lasting effects of a ransomware attack

Given the prospect of war in Europe, a war that will be fought not just with guns and tanks but firewalls and hackers, we all need to be alive to the threat of ransomware. Ransomware attacks feature in the headlines all too regularly. Over the past year, we have seen many companies across various sectors experiencing encrypted data loss and downtime as well as public relations disasters due to these cyberattacks on their systems that seek payment through ransomware.

It is alarming to see the number of ransomware attacks increasing. Although cybersecurity has been a major concern for several years, looking further helps illustrate its true scale when incidents like those at Colonial Pipelines highlight just how severe this problem can be for businesses and people alike all around the world. And with the ever-increasing threat of cyber-warfare, it's no surprise organizations are seeking to bolster their cyber security resilience.

In the wake of a ransomware attack, it is easy to forget that an organization's systems and data can still be compromised even after paying off attackers. For example, aluminium producer Norsk Hydro paid tens of millions in order to get back on track after an attack. There’s plenty of commentary about the nature of cyberattacks but little consideration gets given towards what happens next — how do companies recover? When organizations refuse or are unable (for whatever reason) to respond to these criminals' requests for payment, what happens next?

The average ransomware attack is over more quickly, but few organizations can absorb that amount of disruption and cost. It's even worse for those who decide to pay up--as reported in Forbes; “even if a payment was forthcoming 92% don't get all their data back."

Relying on antivirus and sandboxing technologies can be effective up to a point, but the problem is that nearly 70% of malware found embedded within files is unknown when received by an organization. In effect, this means organizations are unprotected against any unseen cyberattacks which could lead them towards catastrophe.

With new malware variants appearing every few seconds, the speed of identity is imperative. Antivirus and sandboxing solutions can take days or even weeks before they are updated to protect your files and documents from being infected with malicious code that may sit on a network infrastructure undetected for up to 30 days before reactive protection responds appropriately.

Instead, Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) delivers a proactive cybersecurity protection system that doesn’t wait for you to be hacked. Glasswall's CDR platform instantly cleans files so organizations can have faith in every document they use because it removes any potential threats without requiring multiple antivirus scanning or sandboxing - according to Gartner "the solution neutralizes all malicious content".

For a more thorough understanding of how Glasswall CDR can help protect against file-based attacks, click here.

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