Did you know that ransomware attacks typically target personal workstations? That being said, they have little to do with hosted web applications. If you are managing data in your organization, there are two ways to best protect yourselves as end users:
- Prevention: increase the barrier for viruses to take control of your work station by mandating anti-virus software on workstations.
- Mitigation: prepare for the case that your work station may get compromised anyhow.
In the first case of prevention, you can check with your IT service provider and your personal security settings to determine whether you have adequate anti-virus protection installed on your workstations.
However, I suggest that mitigation is actually a much better approach to managing ransomware attacks.
There is one advantage to ransomware: it is generally not operating in stealth mode, meaning that the whole purpose of ransomware is to disclose itself to the end-user with a demand for payment, in return for not deleting data on the user’s machine.
It is this fact that suggests that the best protection against ransomware attacks is to assume they will happen. What better answer to a blackmail attempt than “go right ahead, delete my data, I don’t care”?
View your work stations as a dispensable, non-critical piece of equipment.
Thus, I propose that you view your work stations as a dispensable, non-critical piece of equipment. As long as your email, documents, and settings are backed up and stored with a cloud service, you will not need to be worried about ransomware attackers holding your workstation “hostage.”
App Risk Management and Mitigation
The modern organization utilizes both content management systems and web applications to support business processes. These web applications are an extension of an existing business – no more, no less. At Palomino, we help organizations process data in real-time, offload onerous and error-prone administrative tasks onto self-serve customer portals, and gather larger amounts of data about their communities.
Moving these processes into the cloud has become a natural progression for any business. Of course, there are risks associated with this transition, and often, these risks are not very well understood. Every business owner dreads the feeling that one day, they will hear that their business data has been compromised, leaked, or hacked in any way. Few know how to adequately protect their business, and handle this risk.
In our white paper, we’ll help you demystify web application security risk and provide a step-by-step guide on how to manage business risk. Learn more by reading, Web App Security: A Deep Dive.
This blog was originally posted on the website of ORION’s Nebula partner, Palomino and its WebPal applications suite. ORION customers have access to WebPal, one of many service partners part of the ORION Nebula, a value-added network of cloud and software services for Ontario’s research, education and innovation communities. Learn more about Palomino WebPal.