Research has revealed that 84% of surveyed organizations in 2024 experienced at least one ransomware attack, with as many as 74% targeted multiple times. The estimated overall costs of ransomware attacks on US businesses were $124.2 billion.
While ransomware historically relied heavily on encryption to lock access to data, modern ransomware attacks are increasingly incorporating—or even focusing solely on—data exfiltration and the threat of public release as a primary extortion tactic.
This double-extortion or encryptionless approach puts immense pressure on large enterprises due to its enormous potential to cause reputational damage, legal repercussions, and loss of customer trust, in addition to monetary losses.
Add to this the sophistication and popularity of the almost enterprise-level structure and organization of RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service), and you’re dealing with a gigantic problem threatening to undermine the very existence of your business.
Ransomware is a ubiquitous and highly adapting security threat. But that’s yesterday’s news, isn’t it? The real question is whether there is something you can do to prevent ransomware attacks, or at least reduce the consequences when they hit. As it turns out, there is, which you’ll learn about in the following sections.
What Is Ransomware and How Does It Impact Enterprises?
Until relatively recently, ransomware was exclusively a type of malware that encrypts the victim’s files upon infiltrating a system or network, effectively locking them and rendering them unusable. Attackers would then demand a payment (ransom) in exchange for the decryption key. The strong encryption methods made data recovery without the key next to impossible.
Attackers typically communicated the demand through a ransom note. The note would contain directions on how to pay and often included a deadline to create a sense of urgency, forcing the victim to comply with the demands.
However, things have changed. While encryption remains an important component in many attacks, the evolution of ransomware now sees threat actors stealing sensitive information before or instead of encrypting it.
In these encryptionless attacks, threat actors focus on exfiltrating sensitive data and then threatening to publicly release or sell the information unless the victim pays a ransom. This shift is due to the higher efficiency of the new tactics, as attackers can avoid the complexities of the encryption process, as well as the potential detection associated with recognizable encryption patterns.
As we can see, ransomware’s continued primary purpose—extortion—still falls within the broader category of malware, but its tactics have changed.
Ransomware attacks disproportionately target organizations and industries where data is critical and downtime can have severe consequences:
- Large enterprises, with their copious sensitive data and complex networks, are one of the most attractive targets for cybercriminals seeking payouts in the millions of dollars.
- Government agencies and educational institutions are also often victimized due to the essential services they provide, and the assumed vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. This is especially prevalent in education.
- Healthcare faces probably the highest risks, as ransomware can disrupt patient care and compromise sensitive health information, making medical institutions more likely to pay a ransom quickly.
- Finance, handling highly regulated and valuable financial data, is also a prime target for ransomware operators aiming for substantial monetary gains.
Enterprises, as our primary focus in this article, can equally suffer from a cascade of damaging effects due to ransomware.
As critical data and systems become encrypted, operations grind to a halt, leading to revenue loss and potential breaches of customer trust. But the financial toll extends far beyond revenue loss and ransom payouts. It includes costly recovery efforts, legal and compliance consequences, and skyrocketing insurance premiums.
Moreover, the reputational damage done by a ransomware attack can erode customer confidence and avert long-term business prospects. That makes the recovery in the aftermath of an attack a protracted and multifaceted challenge for any enterprise, even the most successful.
5 Steps to Prevent Ransomware in Large Enterprises
Prevention is the best medicine. Therefore, in this section, we won’t be talking about response, that is, what should you do when a ransomware attack happens. Instead, we’ll turn our attention exclusively to how not to get to when. So, here is our ransomware prevention checklist.
Ransomware Prevention Checklist Step 1: Strengthen Your Network Security
Strengthening network security forms the bedrock of any robust ransomware prevention strategy.
A well-configured firewall should act as the first line of defense, considering how thoroughly it inspects and filters network traffic to block malicious intrusions. Coupled with a VPN for secure remote access, which encrypts data transmission and creates a secure communication tunnel, it will help you noticeably limit exposure.
Further, strategically segmenting your network into isolated zones limits attackers’ lateral movement. Even if attackers compromise one segment, you can still contain the damage, preventing them from gaining access to sensitive data and critical systems. The point of segmentation is to reduce the overall attack surface available to ransomware.
Implementing multi-factor authentication, or MFA, adds an extra layer of security. MFA requires users to provide verification factors beyond just a password before granting network access. This involves the use of authenticator apps, hardware tokens, and SMS OTPs. MFA can be highly successful in reducing the risk of unauthorized access stemming from compromised credentials—one of the top entry points for ransomware.
When you carefully control who and what can access your network, you take the first resolute step toward lowering the probability of ransomware gaining an initial foothold and propagating throughout your environment.
Ransomware Prevention Checklist Step 2: Perform Regular Data Backups
The proactive execution of regular data backups and the development of a well-thought-out disaster recovery plan form the critical second layer of preventive measures against ransomware attacks.
Your backup process should be automated. That will guarantee frequency and consistency, minimizing the window of data loss in the event of an attack. Besides, automated backups avoid the pitfalls of inadvertent human mistakes.
You must remember to store backups offsite or in a cloud environment that incorporates air-gap protection. This guarantees network isolation and prevents direct access or propagation of ransomware from the primary systems to the backup repository.
We cannot emphasize enough how critical this separation is for thwarting the destructive force of ransomware attacks. Multiple backup copies in different areas allow you to have a clean and uninfected version of your data readily available for restoration, even if threat actors compromise and encrypt your primary systems.
Ransomware Prevention Checklist Step 3: Educate Employees on Phishing and Social Engineering
Empowering employees to recognize and resist phishing and social engineering tactics is a vital third step in supporting a large enterprise’s defenses against ransomware.
Cybercriminals frequently exploit human vulnerabilities to gain initial access to systems, which makes employees the first line of defense. Hence, conducting regular security awareness training is necessary.
These sessions should educate employees on the various forms of phishing (email, SMS, voice), common social engineering techniques, and the red flags to watch out for, such as suspicious senders, unusual requests, and urgent or threatening language.
You should implement simulated phishing attacks to reinforce this training and gauge its effectiveness. Controlled exercises like these mimic real-world scenarios and can offer precious insights into employee susceptibility to specific social engineering tactics.
By tracking who clicks on malicious links or gives out sensitive information, security teams can identify areas where employees need additional training. The insights from simulated phishing will make it possible to tailor your training to the specific needs of your organization and, in the long run, create a much more security-conscious workforce.
Finally, any organization must have a clear and user-friendly reporting process for suspicious emails and activities. Employees should know exactly how to report anything that seems out of the ordinary without fear of being reprimanded.
Prompt reporting allows security teams to investigate potential threats quickly, contain incidents before they escalate, and disseminate timely warnings to the rest of the organization, further strengthening the collective defense against ransomware attacks.
Ransomware Prevention Checklist Step 4: Implement Least Privilege Access within a Zero-Trust Framework
Implementing least-privilege access as part of a zero-trust framework forms a critical fourth step in preventing ransomware.
This approach operates on the fundamental principle of granting users, applications, and systems only the absolute minimum level of permissions necessary to perform their designated tasks. Within a zero-trust context, this means abandoning implicit trust and continuously controlling access to resources based on, say, verified trust policies.
By limiting each entity’s capabilities, you lower the possible impact of a compromised account or system, hindering ransomware criminals’ ability to spread laterally, escalate privileges, and encrypt critical data across your network.
The huge benefit of going beyond just user accounts to service accounts and applications is that if a threat actor gains control of a seemingly less privileged entity, their ability to perform damaging actions is constrained. This control over permissions is a cornerstone of minimizing the attack surface and limiting the blast radius of a potential ransomware incident.
The practical implementation of least privilege is all about a granular approach to access. What this means is carefully defined roles and responsibilities, assigned permissions based on those roles, and adjusted access rights that are regularly reviewed. Technologies like role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC) can facilitate the process further.
Ransomware Prevention Checklist Step 5: Patch and Mitigate Exposure
Exploiting vulnerabilities or exposures in public-facing applications became a primary initial access vector for ransomware in 2024. This underlines the need for timely patching. Hence, implementing a strict remediation schedule with efficient patching cycles is of the utmost importance when it comes to protecting your IT environment against ransomware.
However, we all know from experience that this is easier said than done. Reducing the typically large attack surface available to ransomware by patching alone is an almost Sisyphean effort, especially when considering legacy software risks—which by definition are difficult or impossible to patch—and the security of the software supply chain. Add to this that the Time-to-Exploit is incomparably much shorter than the Time-to-Patch, and you have a disaster waiting to happen.
For this reason, you must implement effective mitigation independent of patching, if you haven’t done so already. Patchless mitigation delivers immediate protection for your modern, legacy, and software supply chain, speeding up remediation dramatically, providing defense while you’re waiting for that necessary patch, and keeping unpatchable systems and applications secure from ransomware attacks.
By proactively remediating, which mitigates exposure more precisely, enterprises complement the preventive measures of network security, data backups, employee education, and least privilege access and zero trust, covering the gaps inadvertently left by other security measures.
How to Respond to a Ransomware Attack: Incident Response Plan
You’ve done everything you could, but for some reason—maybe through neglect or a missed preventive step—you’ve ended up facing a full-blown ransomware attack. What should you do?
Develop and Test an Incident Response Plan (IRP)
An incident response plan (IRP) is like an exhaustive playbook that outlines the precise steps your organization needs to take from the moment an incident is suspected through to full recovery and post-incident analysis.
A detailed IRP clearly defines roles and responsibilities for various teams and individuals, guaranteeing a coordinated response under pressure. It also establishes communication plans, both internally, to keep stakeholders informed, and externally, to manage public relations and regulatory obligations. Without a well-defined incident response plan, you risk chaos, delayed actions, and highly severe consequences in the face of a sophisticated ransomware attack.
The dynamic nature of ransomware threats necessitates that you treat IRP as a living entity that undergoes regular testing and updates instead of a one-and-done static document.
In that dynamic spirit, simulation exercises, such as tabletop scenarios and full-scale drills, are indispensable means for identifying weaknesses in the plan, evaluating the preparedness of response teams, and refining procedures based on lessons learned.
Another way to adapt the IRP is to stay informed about emerging ransomware tactics, attack vectors, and the latest recommendations from cybersecurity experts. A continually updated plan enables your organization to remain agile and capable of responding, regardless of the sophistication of the ransomware attack.
At its core, the IRP for ransomware must prioritize prompt containment to prevent the spread of malware within your network. Therefore, immediate steps that allow you to isolate infected systems and segment the network are critical in limiting the scope of the attack.
Following containment, a thorough investigation is necessary to understand the attack vector, precisely identify compromised systems and data, and gather forensic evidence.
Finally, in the recovery phase of your disaster recovery plan, you should focus on restoring systems and data from clean backups while eradicating ransomware and patching any exploited vulnerabilities to prevent future incidents.
A well-orchestrated IRP that emphasizes these three phases is requisite for minimizing downtime, data loss, and the overall impact of a ransomware attack.
Reporting and Legal Considerations
As with everything else in cybersecurity, responding to a ransomware attack requires adherence to reporting and legal requirements. Depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the compromised data, there may be mandatory legal provisions to report the incident to relevant authorities.
For instance, organizations handling the personal data of EU citizens must report breaches under GDPR to supervisory authorities within 72 hours. That, of course, includes ransomware attacks that lead to data inaccessibility or exfiltration. CCPA and other data privacy regulations impose similar requirements in different regions.
Non-compliance results in substantial fines and reputation damage. Hence, your incident response plan must include straightforward guidelines for evaluating and fulfilling compliance demands.
Preserving all the evidence and data related to a ransomware incident is essential from a compliance perspective, but its merits don’t stop there.
Attack evidence and data are key to conducting thorough forensic investigations as well. Maintaining the integrity of affected systems, network logs, and any communication with the threat actors makes understanding the attack vector, identifying the exploited vulnerabilities, and attributing the attack much easier, which is why it should be a priority.
Adequate evidence preservation techniques, such as forensic images of compromised systems and documented chain of custody, allow you to collect information relevant for internal analysis, potential legal proceedings, and cooperation with law enforcement agencies.
A well-documented and forensically sound investigation helps in the immediate recovery efforts, informs future security strategies, and allows you to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The Role of Technology in Ransomware Protection
Instead of reinventing the wheel and laboring over manual workloads, why not just use suitable technology—security solutions that automate and simplify ransomware protection?
Platforms powered by the advanced capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning are especially helpful in that regard. They can analyze overwhelming volumes of data in real time, identify minute changes, and block any behavior, code, or processes that point to the early stages of a ransomware attack.
For starters, an AI-powered solution can easily and quickly recognize patterns associated with ransomware encryption and lateral movement. By monitoring file system changes, network traffic flows, and user behavior around the clock, AI algorithms are able to detect unusual spikes in file modifications, unauthorized access attempts to sensitive resources, or suspicious communication between endpoints as they happen.
This proactive approach allows for prompt prevention and response to cybercriminals’ attempts to encrypt sensitive data and deny you access to your own systems. For instance, a sudden surge in write operations in numerous files or unusual network connections originating from a single (compromised) host can trigger alerts and allow security teams to block the cyberattack swiftly.
Moreover, unlike traditional signature-based security solutions that rely strictly on known malware patterns, AI and ML algorithms can also detect novel or evolving ransomware variants. How? By first establishing a baseline of expected system and network activity and then detecting deviations from this baseline.
The ability to correlate seemingly disparate events, identify patterns characteristic of ransomware, and block deviations from a verified baseline in real time makes AI invaluable in protecting against ransomware threats. What’s more, it can be instrumental in making the services of professional ransomware negotiators unnecessary.
Conclusion
Ransomware is a severe and persistent threat, and large enterprises are among its primary targets. But not all is bleak.
If you apply the five steps we described in our ransomware prevention checklist—strengthening network security, ensuring regular backups, educating employees, enforcing least privilege with a zero-trust mindset, and diligently patching and mitigating exposures—you can immensely fortify your defenses against this increasingly sophisticated threat.
While a robust incident response plan and compliance with regulations and standards are necessary for managing successful attacks, the ultimate goal remains proactive prevention. And for that, technology that incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning, such as OTTOGUARD.AI, can be your best ally.
Our workload patchless mitigation platform, OTTOGUARD.AI, relies on patented zero-trust technology and AI agents that learn and monitor the behavior of your IT environment’s various components. It enforces only trusted code and processes to run and enables an autonomous ransomware response within milliseconds.
Book a demo to see OTTOGUARD.AI in action.
FAQs
What is ransomware, and how does it work?
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts or exfiltrates your data, with attackers threatening to either publish or make your sensitive information unusable unless you pay a ransom.
How can I prevent a ransomware attack in my enterprise?
Implement a layered security approach that encompasses network security, regular backups, employee education, least privilege and zero trust, diligent patching, and immediate mitigation.
What should I do if my enterprise is attacked by ransomware?
Immediately activate your pre-established incident response plan, isolate affected systems to prevent further spread, and contact your cybersecurity team and legal counsel.
