Don’t Let Ransomware Hold You Hostage: Secure These 5 Common Ransomware Entry Points

What Does Ransomware Cost Companies?

Ransomware attacks can be very costly for companies, and the cost goes far beyond the ransom payment. Research predicts that ransomware will cost victims a collective total of $265 billion by 2031, with the average ransomware payment having climbed 82% since 2020.  

Additional costs and consequences associated with ransomware attacks include:

• Increasing threat: The first month of 2023 saw 33 publicly disclosed ransomware attacks, the highest number of attacks ever recorded for a January. And according to Dataprise, ransomware attacks have increased by 57% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. 
• Recovery costs: The average cost of recovery from attacks is now close to $2 million.
• Damage to company brand reputation: Ransomware attacks can damage a company’s reputation, which can be difficult and costly to repair.
• Penalties for unmet contractual obligations: Companies may face penalties for not meeting contractual obligations to customers.

What are the 5 Most Common Ransomware Entry Points?

1. Compromised Credentials

Compromised credentials are one of the ways in which attackers can gain access to your network and systems to deploy ransomware, steal personal/financial information, or take over accounts. 

Compromised credentials mean that your corporate network’s keys have been leaked and are currently published on a ransomware data leak site such as Conti.News, which is operated by the Conti ransomware group.

How to remedy it: To mitigate the risk of ransomware attacks, organizations should implement strong password policies, multi-factor authentication, continuous monitoring of networks and backups for suspicious activity, and regular security awareness training for employees. Additionally, keeping software and systems up-to-date and maintaining regular backups can reduce the impact of a successful ransomware attack.

2. Unmanaged Devices or Bring Your Own Device

Individuals using their personal, unmanaged devices to access company resources and applications pose a substantial risk to organizations. IT departments are already grappling with all the known security issues, adding unmanaged devices beyond their visibility or control simply exacerbates the situation and is fertile ground for cybercriminals looking for a weak spot to access your network. 

Malware, for example, poses a considerable danger when employees operate unmanaged devices; if an individual accesses corporate applications using their work credentials on a personal device that is infected with malware, company information could easily be siphoned into the hands of cybercriminals.

How to remedy it: Existing endpoint detection solutions, unfortunately, don’t always offer adequate protection from malware and ransomware attacks. You need complete data visibility and insights into the full picture of ransomware risks, including the compromised assets that could likely lead to future attacks.

3. Internet-facing Applications with Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities in internet-facing applications are one of the most common attack vectors for ransomware. Organizations need these applications to enable employees to work remotely and might not even be aware that they are exposed to the internet. Since these internet-facing applications are often a standard fixture across enterprise environments globally, they are a very tempting target for cybercriminals. 

How to remedy it: To mitigate the risks associated with internet-facing applications, it is important to keep a complete and frequently-updated inventory of internet-facing applications, identify gaps in an organization’s application security, and isolate web-facing applications.

4. Brute-force credential attacks

Brute force attacks still represent the vast majority of threats to cloud service providers and made up 51% of all attacks in the first quarter of 2022. A brute-force attack is a form of hacking that uses trial and error to crack passwords, login credentials, and encryption keys. It involves guessing login information, encryption keys, or finding a hidden web page by working through all possible combinations hoping to guess correctly. 

Brute-force attacks can be performed manually without using any software or by using automated tools that utilize wordlists and smart rulesets to intelligently and automatically guess user passwords

How to remedy it: Brute-force attacks are easy to detect, but they are not so easy to prevent. The best remedies include measures such as account lockout policies, rate limiting and multi-factor authentication and investing in a cloud service provider with zero-trust architecture when it comes to access control. 

5. Social engineering

Social engineering is one of the easiest paths for cybercriminals to exploit users and infect their devices with ransomware. Cybercriminals use phishing emails or other social engineering techniques to trick users into revealing their login credentials or downloading malware.

How to remedy it: The first step is to make sure your staff is trained to notice social engineering attempts and stay updated about the various techniques hackers may employ. You have to maintain proper anti-virus and ransomware security solutions in place. But most importantly, you have to regularly back up important data to an external environment or cloud storage service.