Skip to main content
Last year, nearly three-quarters of all businesses encountered a ransomware attack, with each incident potentially halting operations for weeks. As attacks become more sophisticated, understanding how to effectively protect your business is more crucial than ever.
Don’t wait for a breach. Read on to discover actionable ways to prevent ransomware, including proactive strategies to fortify your defenses and ensure your business is protected against ransomware.
What Is Ransomware Prevention?
Ransomware prevention involves a set of strategies and technologies designed to detect and respond to ransomware attacks before it infiltrates your system and wreaks havoc.
This form of cybersecurity defense works to safeguard sensitive data by blocking malicious software that attempts to encrypt files and demand payment for their release.
Effective ransomware prevention includes real-time monitoring and advanced threat detection. This ensures data integrity and enables quick recovery without paying the ransom. These preventative measures help organizations to minimize the risk of significant disruptions and financial losses, which can amount to millions.
Why Is Ransomware Prevention Important?
Ransomware prevention is crucial because it directly impacts a company’s business operations, financial stability, and data security. In the event of a ransomware attack, businesses can face significant downtime, and many other issues, such as:
- Substantial financial losses
- Disruption in customer services
- Damage to a company’s reputation
- High recovery costs (IT services and insurance premiums)
- Compliance issues and legal fines
Preventing ransomware attacks also ensures the protection of sensitive data, which is especially critical for organizations handling confidential client information, proprietary business data, or regulated health and financial records. The loss or exposure of such data can lead to severe compliance and legal issues.
Ultimately, ransomware prevention is not just about avoiding financial loss—it’s about ensuring business continuity, maintaining customer trust, and staying on the right side of the law.
Do You Need Ransomware Prevention If Your Business Has Backups?
A common misconception is that backups will protect you from ransomware. Today’s hackers use double and triple extortion techniques. That means they don’t just encrypt your data, but they will also threaten to publish the data on the dark web if you don’t pay them millions.
Even if you can restore your data, the damage—reputational damage, legal issues, and loss of customer trust—can be devastating.
To protect your business and its data, it’s better to follow modern best practices designed to block threats before they infiltrate and exploit your systems.
Best Practices for Ransomware Prevention
Here are some effective best practices and recommendations to prevent ransomware from successfully attacking your organization.
- Execute Regular Software Updates and Patch Management
Keeping software and operating systems up-to-date is crucial. Regular updates patch security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by ransomware. Ensure that all software, especially those exposed to the internet, are regularly updated to minimize potential entry points for attackers.
- Carry Out Employee Training and Awareness Programs
Human error is a common entry point for ransomware attacks. Conduct regular training sessions to educate employees about the latest phishing tactics and suspicious activities. Empowering your staff to recognize and report potential threats can dramatically reduce the risk of successful attacks.
- Implement a Zero Trust Security Model
Assume no entity or device is trusted by default, regardless of whether it is inside or outside the network. Zero trust requires verification at every step, significantly limiting the potential movement of ransomware within the network if an attack occurs.
- Restrict User Permissions
Limit user permissions to only those necessary for a user’s duties. This principle of least privilege can prevent ransomware from spreading to critical systems and limit the damage it can do. Learn more about how ProLion supports data access transparency, so you can track who has access to what.
- Don’t Rely on Endpoint Protection Alone
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are designed to scan and monitor individual devices and catch malware. But they aren’t foolproof: EDR systems can miss sophisticated ransomware. You need a last line of defense at the storage level to prevent ransomware encrypting your files and spreading through your network.
- Leverage Advanced Threat Detection Tools
Threat monitoring and detection tools can detect suspicious behavior, such as sudden mass encryption of files, and prevent it from spreading. CryptoSpike from ProLion monitors your network traffic and system activities and blocks suspicious users, stopping ransomware in its tracks.
Why ProLion Is the Most Effective Way to Prevent Ransomware
Despite your best efforts to train your staff, keep your software updated, and follow all the recommended security practices, the truth is, ransomware can still sneak through. That’s where ProLion steps in, acting as a last line of defense.
ProLion’s ransomware protection solution continuously monitors your storage systems, catching and stopping suspicious activities that hint at ransomware—like copying or deleting large amounts of files.
This kind of proactive defense ensures that even if some threats get past your initial defenses (like endpoint protection), they won’t get far.
Case Studies: How Organizations Prevent Ransomware with ProLion
Businesses around the world rely on ProLion to keep them safe from ransomware and other cyber threats.
With the increase in government attacks, The district of Tilburg, part of the Dutch government, decided to step up their ransomware prevention.
CryptoSpike protects the organization in two ways: via a blocklist and via behavior pattern monitoring.
The blocklist blocks all known ransomware extension types, while the monitoring tool tracks and logs user behavior. If it detects unusual activity, it immediately notifies the administrator and blocks the suspicious user.
As a result, the organization has been able to remain ransomware-free for many years.
It’s not just governments that need to prevent ransomware. There are many ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector, too.
The German hospital “Klinikum Peine” carries a huge responsibility for their patients and needs to keep confidential patient data safe. They rely on ProLion to keep them safe from ransomware. With real-time 24/7 monitoring of threat indicators, the hospital can avoid downtime and maintain patient care.
Next Steps: Prevent Ransomware Attacks Now
As ransomware attacks get more sophisticated, it’s crucial to be proactive and take action to bolster your defenses. Don’t wait for a breach!
There are a few things you can do right now to keep your organization safe from ransomware.
First, grab our whitepaper to learn more about the different ransomware prevention strategies.
If you already have some ransomware prevention strategies in place but you’re not sure how effective they are, take our cyber resilience assessment to find out.
And finally, sign up for a personalized live demo, where we’ll show you how our solution actively monitors and prevents ransomware in real-time. See for yourself how CryptoSpike detects and stops suspicious activities before they become a threat, keeping your business data safe and operations running smoothly.
