How to Evaluate if Your Business is Protected Against Ransomware

Taking steps to guard against ransomware is a great start. However, cyberthreats evolve, which sometimes render your past preparations obsolete.

Therefore, it’s vital to regularly evaluate if your business has solid ransomware protection. Here are some of the best ways to evaluate your readiness in case of an attempted ransomware attack.

1. Get a Vulnerability Assessment

Your information security is only as strong as its weakest vulnerability. That’s where a vulnerability assessment proves useful.

Vulnerability assessments use automated tools to perform high-level scans of your networks, applications, databases, and other parts of your IT infrastructure. They look for weaknesses in your network security, then provide you a report detailing these deficiencies.

2. Run Penetration Tests

Penetration tests are controlled, simulated attacks against your computer systems and IT infrastructure to test the strength of your defenses.

These are incredibly useful because they can help you identify real weak points that could leave you vulnerable in an actual ransomware attack or another event — without experiencing loss.

You can hire penetration testing professionals to run these tests for you, report any deficiencies, and potentially make recommendations to correct them.

Alternatively, you can hire outside firms to perform these tests for you.

Now, penetration tests should not be confused with vulnerability assessments. The latter is more high-level and less resource-intensive. On the other hand, penetration tests are larger investments but provide a clearer picture of your firm’s security.

3. Check If All Software is Up to Date

A critical part of information security is updating all applications, operating systems, and drivers the moment new updates are released. This ensures you have the latest security patches and upgrades in every system.

Thus, check regularly that any software your firm uses is up to date. If possible, enable automatic updates — but continue to check every so often in case an update fails for some reason.

This goes for everything from niche software to large, mainstream products. For instance, in 2017, many Windows business users who didn’t keep their systems updated to the latest version fell victim to the WannaCry ransomware attack.

4. Look at Your Backups

Ransomware attacks can sometimes make it through even the toughest of defenses. However, having secure backups allows a business to recover its data without much loss and avoid paying the ransom.

Check to make sure your firm is routinely backing up your information somewhere safe. Ideally, you want three backups altogether: two of them on-site (in different forms) and one off-site. You can use either the cloud or a physical backup, but it’s a good idea to have both.

Your Best Bet: Work with Professionals

In theory, you can do all three of these tactics in-house. However, working with professionals is your best bet for maximizing your defenses is to work with cybersecurity professionals.

They have the knowledge and expertise to find deficiencies and help you defend against ransomware. Additionally, they provide a fresh external perspective, helping you spot things you may have overlooked.