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Data is invaluable in today’s marketplace. It defines who companies are and drives what companies do. But this precious data is often put at risk by ransomware. A Cybersecurity Ventures report estimates that there were ransomware attacks every 11 seconds in 2021, totaling $20 billion in damages. This statistic means that roughly six companies were forced to recover their data and faced the risk of shutting down, either temporarily or permanently, every minute of every hour of every day that year. Unfortunately, this problem isn’t going anywhere — it’s only getting worse.

Ransomware is a type of malware that infects computers and holds sensitive data hostage until a ransom is paid. Cybercriminals gain leverage by indicating that a failure to pay the ransom can result in a permanent loss or data exposure. Attacks typically involve encrypting or destroying both primary and backup data, effectively preventing a company from restoring the data on its own.

Ransomware attacks can strike at any moment and in a variety of different ways. And in today’s data-driven world, it’s not a matter of if a ransomware attack will happen. It’s a matter of when. As a result, organizations of all types and sizes should be mindful of these cyber threats and take the necessary steps to mitigate — and ultimately prevent — ransomware attacks.

Practical Ways to Prevent Ransomware Attacks

Keep Software Current

While data is always at risk of a ransomware attack, strategic precautions can make it less vulnerable. First, it’s important for organizations to ensure that all devices and software are kept up-to-date. Updates adapt as ransomware evolves, making it harder for the malware to infiltrate the systems and data.

Empower Every User

Individual users also play a critical role in this defense. Ransomware can be sent through infected attachments via email, so users should never open suspicious email attachments or emails from unknown sources. The same goes for online downloads. Anyone using the company network should avoid visiting suspicious sites in the first place, but even more so, they should avoid downloading content from those untrustworthy sites.

Protect the Endpoint

Endpoint security is vital when companies are using multiple computers. Any laptops, smartphones, and servers used by company employees should be protected. Every endpoint is another opportunity for ransomware attackers to access private information or the main network. Endpoint protection platforms and endpoint detection and response add a barrier of protection against ransomware for all network users.

Plan With Remote Work in Mind

Many employees in today’s society enjoy working remotely. With the rise in remote work comes an increase in the use of public Wi-Fi networks. While public Wi-Fi isn’t all bad, users should be cautious when using public networks to handle sensitive transactions and data. If necessary, users should use VPN services to handle essential data in public.

Make Security a Priority

A crucial step in preventing ransomware attacks is implementing security awareness training. A company is only as strong as its weakest employee, so companies should do everything possible to educate their employees on ransomware prevention. Employees should be taught the importance of safe web surfing, creating strong and secure passwords, using secure VPNs, recognizing suspicious emails, and maintaining updated systems and software.

Companies should also install antivirus software and firewalls to scan, detect, and respond to cyber threats. Firewalls are often the first lines of defense, followed by antivirus software that can detect threats at the internal level.

Panzura Delivers Next Gen Ransomware Protection and Prevention

Panzura’s CloudFS 8 Defend technology seamlessly integrates with Varonis Data Security Platform to enable users to defend their data against ransomware. Varonis secures unstructured data from unauthorized access and cyber threats, both on-premises and in the cloud. It provides early detection of ransomware by monitoring and alerting on any suspicious activity. After issuing alerts, the platform automatically shuts down compromised accounts, limiting the recovery effort required. 

CloudFS 8 Defend provides straightforward performance-based alerts in one notification dashboard. These alerts help IT teams determine what’s wrong, pinpoint where the problem exists, and determine how to fix it. Ultimately, these alerts relieve the burden of nagging security issues, freeing up IT teams to help prevent their companies from falling victim to cyber threats.

Shift the balance of power in the fight against ransomware.

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Becoming Ransomware Resilient

Truth be told, data can never be completely protected from ransomware. However, companies can implement software that fully recovers data that may get attacked. While Panzura cannot prevent ransomware attacks, it can prevent companies from losing valuable data.

All of this is possible thanks to Panzura’s immutable CloudFS globe file system, which tracks deltas from the inception of a file. Data can be stored in any public or private cloud using object storage for scalability and durability. Users can work from any location on familiar files in a familiar directory. Any changes made to those files are converted into object blocks that are also stored in the object store. Panzura never overwrites existing data. It simply updates the metadata for every file edit. 

Read-only snapshots protect all data blocks so that users can go back to a previous snapshot of a file at any given time. These snapshots are taken at configurable intervals, with the default being 60 minutes. Additionally, read-only snapshots can be taken at the local filer level every 60 seconds and used to transfer changed data to the object store. The beauty of read-only snapshots is that they are impervious to ransomware and are a granular way to restore data to any previous version. 

In the event of a ransomware attack, CloudFS’s back-end immutability ensures automated resilience by restoring files to unaffected versions and marking impacted files as read-only, allowing for swift detection and removal. This process can restore single files, entire directories, and even the entire global file system.

When ransomware attacks occur — and they will — companies need to guard against data exposure. Attackers ask for a ransom to restore data, but paying this ransom never guarantees the attackers will be true to their word. Panzura keeps companies from making this mistake. CloudFS can make data illegible to unauthorized eyes using military-grade encryption for data at the edge, within the object store, and in flight as data is moved into and out of the store.

The average downtime a company experiences after a ransomware attack is 21 days. Panzura shortens that timeframe to only 48 hours. Ransomware should never be the reason a business shuts down. Panzura gives companies around the world the peace of mind that their data is safe, so they are free to focus on their business without worrying about their data.