Combating Ransomware with Sophos Next-Gen Security

If you follow the news and keep up with events, you are all too familiar with the words “hacking,” “breaches,” “cybersecurity,” and “ransomware.” It seems that every day there is a report that a university, large retailer, hospital or business has fallen victim to a cyber-attack. Experts say that 2016 was record for the most ransomware attacks ever seen with payouts estimated to be $1 billion. Each day it becomes more challenging to recognize forms of ransomware, making the probability incredibly high that a breach will occur.

Experts say that 2016 was record for the most ransomware attacks ever seen with payouts estimated to be $1 billion.

In the United States last year, over 50% of all businesses reported experiencing an attack. San Francisco’s metro system and Presbyterian Medical Center in California, for example, fell victim to these attacks -- like thousands of other businesses. In March of 2016, 56,000 ransomware infections were recorded alone. The average ransom demanded was $679 while others were asked to pay thousands. The real number, however, will never be known as some companies never report incidents. 

In March of 2016 alone, 56,000 ransomware infections were recorded. Click to tweet

Among some of the most targeted sectors are small- to medium-sized businesses. Hackers recognize that, traditionally, SMBs have not invested in protective measures simply for the fact that businesses of this size don’t typically realize that they could be targeted and may not have the knowledge or budget to invest in cybersecurity like larger companies.

Cyber experts don’t anticipate attacks becoming less frequent in 2017 either. In fact, many professionals believe that the landscape, as ever changing as it is, will worsen this year. Though we are only weeks into 2017, experts are predicting increases in domestic and international corporate espionage. Law firms will increasingly be targeted; medical and banking information will continue to be stolen; and mobile devices will be compromised, all with the most sophisticated hacking techniques to date.These examples are, of course, only a small percentage of predictions.

With tech companies creating and manufacturing new tools and gadgets to make the average person’s life easier, it is important to realize that individuals, not just companies, make easy targets. From smart phones to smart homes, and even the advances made to your vehicle, present openings for hackers to enter our lives; we either don’t know, don’t care or forget just how easy we are making it for hackers to access our data.

Though it seems that more people are aware that attacks and breaches are more frequent, businesses still seem to let data security fall to the wayside. Is it a budgeting issue? Do SMB owners feel that their businesses will never be targeted? The truth is that there could be a number of factors that contribute to companies not seeking data protection as quickly as they should.

However, the fact is that investing in protection doesn’t have to be scary, overwhelming or expensive for your business. Experts and IT professionals do their best to urge SMBs to invest before an incident occurs rather than after. Being proactive can save a business owner money in the long run. Managing a “clean up” after an incident is wildly more expensive for the business and more stressful than if they had invested in protective services and solutions in the first place.

Luckily, cybersecurity software companies like Twinstate Technologies and Sophos are always thinking ahead and are knowledgeable on trends and predictions. Their focus is to offer IT security products that are effective and sophisticated, but simple in that every business can use them to help secure their data. For example, Intercept X by Sophos is the newest product that has been designed specifically for what the future of cybercrime seems to be: ransomware.

By simply installing Intercept X, a business is not only taking an important step to protect against and prevent attacks, but it is putting an intelligent system in place in the event there is an attack. Armed with advanced Signatureless Exploit protection, Root Cause Analysis and the ability to stop the attack and roll-back changes to affected files, Intercept X distinguishes itself by being a leader in next-gen security.

While there are other products out there that may seem to offer the same protection, Sophos has created this solution to be more advanced than the competition. Many endpoint clients don’t include web or data control with their protection, thus having a key feature absent from the software. Others have limited product integration requiring the customer to purchase a separate management system where as Sophos Central allows for multiple products to be managed from the same administration code. Regardless of your current endpoint brand, Intercept X is an invaluable add-on for any client.

Other weaknesses in competition include platform specific features; some applications may only work best on, for example, Windows, and limit protection elsewhere. Above all, customers want to ensure that the product they are choosing will, in fact, protect them. Some Intercept X competitors claim to be a quality product when in reality, they have traditionally low scores when their software is tested.

Not only are you getting the most advanced protection with Intercept X, but it’s the support and monitoring that happens behind the scenes in concert with the software that make all the difference in your data protection.

Twinstate’s Information Security Advisory Team (ISAT) is not only knowledgeable on this solution and its capabilities, but provides customers with continuous support. ISAT offers comprehensive best practices on information security and IT services; support planning, updating and budgeting; database monitoring; and incident response among others. This consistent, comprehensive care matched with next-gen software has earned Twinstate customer reliance and trusted partnership.