Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 18 | Page 25

COMMENT “We should all be aware that the threat of targeted ransomware attacks on businesses is rising, bringing tangible financial losses. The trend is alarming as ransomware actors start their crusade for new and more profitable victims. There are many more potential ransomware targets in the wild, with attacks resulting in even more disastrous consequences,” said Anton Ivanov, Senior Security Researcher, Anti- Ransom, Kaspersky Lab. To protect organizations from such attacks, Kaspersky Lab security experts advise the following: • • Conduct proper and timely backup of your data so it can be used to restore original files after a data loss event. Use a security solution with behavior based detection • • • technologies. These technologies can catch malware, including ransomware, by watching how it operates on the attacked system and making it possible to detect fresh and yet unknown samples of ransomware. Visit The “No More Ransom” website, a joint initiative with the goal to help victims of ransomware retrieve their encrypted data without having to pay the criminals. Audit installed software, not only on endpoints, but also on all nodes and servers in the network and keep it updated. Conduct a security assessment of the control network (i.e. a security audit, penetration testing, gap analysis) to identify and remove any security loopholes. Review external vendor • • • and 3rd party security policies in case they have direct access to the control network. Request external intelligence: intelligence from reputable vendors helps organizations to predict future attacks on the company. Train your employees, paying special attention to operational and engineering staff and their awareness of recent threats and attacks. Provide protection inside and outside the perimeter. A proper security strategy has to devote significant resources to attack detection and response in order to block an attack before it reaches critically important objects. To learn more about Ransomware targeted attacks, please read the blog post available at Securelist.com. ¡ About Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Lab is one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity companies and the largest that is privately owned. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users (IDC, 2014). Since 1997 Kaspersky Lab has been an innovator in cybersecurity and provides effective digital security solutions and threat intelligence for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab is an international company, operating in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 400 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 25