How to Protect Against Ransomware: Everything You Need to Know

Posted on September 30, 2022September 26, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

Ransomware attacks are the most common attack-type targeting businesses. In fact, 21% of total cyberattacks are caused by ransomware. So learning how to protect against ransomware attacks is crucial to protect your business from ransomware infection.

Published: Sep 22, 2022 | by Sandeep Babu In Technology Trends

In this article, you will explore proven tips to prevent ransomware attacks. Also, you will learn about the best tools you can use to enhance ransomware protection. Let’s dive in:

What Is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware infection that restricts your access to the infected system or data until you pay a ransom in exchange for the access. What’s worse, in some ransomware attacks, hackers threaten to publish data or sell data on the dark web.

Can You Learn How to Prevent Ransomware Attacks?

Yes, you can learn how to prevent ransomware attacks in a suitable cybersecurity workshop or training course. Installing anti-ransomware protection on your system and mobile device, using a quality VPN, and following the best cybersecurity practices are proven ways to prevent ransomware attacks.

Why Is It Important to Protect Against a Ransomware Attack?

Ransomware attacks can affect businesses drastically, resulting in downtime, loss of essential data, money, and reputation. According to The State of Ransomeware, 66% of organizations surveyed were attacked by ransomware last year. And a successful ransomware attack can cost your business dearly. The same report stated ransomware attacks cost, on average, $1.4 million to recover.

Top Tips to Provide Ransomware Protection

The following tips will help you keep your IT infrastructure safe from ransomware infection:

1. Keep Your Systems Up-To-Date

Viruses and ransomware typically look for vulnerabilities in operating systems and software applications to infect. So you should ensure that everyone in your company installs the latest security patches and regularly updates their systems.

It is a good practice to turn on automatic updates in all your company’s systems and software programs.

2. Strengthen Endpoint Security

Hardening endpoint security in your business is an effective way to limit your business’ threat surface. The stronger your endpoint security is, the harder it will be for threat actors to infect your systems with ransomware.

Your endpoint security tools should provide protection from:

Suspicious emails and attachments
Malicious web downloads
Exploits
Unauthorized access to devices and applications

When you are looking for tools to secure endpoints, consider tools that offer behavioral monitoring, rapid detection, and flexible deployment options.

3. Backup Critical Data

Ransomware attacks against schools could rise

Posted on September 20, 2022September 16, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

Federal agencies warned ransomware attacks against schools may increase this school year, in a joint cybersecurity advisory issued Tuesday.

BusinessInsurance.com | Judy Greenwald | September 07, 2022

Attacks may increase as the school year begins “and criminal ransomware groups perceive opportunities for successful attacks,” said the advisory issued by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

“School districts with limited cybersecurity capabilities and constrained resources are often the most vulnerable; however, the opportunistic targeting often seen with cyber criminals can still put school districts with robust cybersecurity programs at risk,” the advisory warns.

“K-12 institutions may be seen as particularly lucrative targets due to the amount for sensitive student data accessible through school systems or their managed service providers,” it said.

Ransomware Attacks

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Ransomware Persists Even as High-Profile Attacks Have Slowed

Posted on January 12, 2022February 14, 2025 by Shield Insurance Agency

Claims Journal | By Eric Tucker and Alan Suderman | December 20, 2021 | Ransomware Attacks | Start A Quote Today!

WASHINGTON (AP)–In the months since President Joe Biden warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he needed to crack down on ransomware gangs in his country, there hasn’t been a massive attack like the one last May that resulted in gasoline shortages. But that’s small comfort to Ken Trzaska.

Trzaska is president of Lewis & Clark Community College, a small Illinois school that canceled classes for days after a ransomware attack last month that knocked critical computer systems offline.

“That first day,” Trzaska said, “I think all of us were probably up 20-plus hours, just moving through the process, trying to get our arms around what happened.”

Even if the United States isn’t currently enduring large-scale, front-page ransomware attacks on par with ones earlier this year that targeted the global meat supply or kept millions of Americans from filling their gas tanks, the problem hasn’t disappeared. In fact, the attack on Trzaska’s college was part of a barrage of lower-profile episodes that have upended the businesses, governments, schools and hospitals that were hit.

The college’s ordeal reflects the challenges the Biden administration faces in stamping out the threat _ and its uneven progress in doing so since ransomware became an urgent national security problem last spring.

U.S. officials have recaptured some ransom payments, cracked down on abuses of cryptocurrency, and made some arrests. Spy agencies have launched attacks against ransomware groups and the U.S. has pushed federal, state and local governments, as well as private industries, to boost protections.

Yet six months after Biden’s admonitions to Putin, it’s hard to tell whether hackers have eased up because of U.S. pressure. Smaller-scale attacks continue, with ransomware criminals continuing to operate from Russia with seeming impunity. Administration officials have given conflicting assessments about whether Russia’s behavior has changed since last summer. Further complicating matters, ransomware is no longer at the top of the U.S.-Russia agenda, with Washington focused on dissuading Putin from invading Ukraine.

Ransomware Attacks

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3 ways ransomware attacks can amplify liability risk for healthcare systems

Posted on December 2, 2021February 14, 2025 by Shield Insurance Agency

Liberty Mutual Insurance > Business Insurance > Insights > 3 ways ransomware attacks can amplify liability risk for healthcare systems

In 2020, more than a third of healthcare organizations in America experienced a ransomware attack. These events often fly under the radar, but that doesn’t make them any less devastating than incidents that make headlines, like the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline. According to a study by Sophos, the average ransomware attack on a healthcare organization costs more than $1 million — but ransomware attacks have more than just a financial impact.

“Hospitals, medical facilities, and their physicians have sensitive patient information on their systems,” says Monica DiCesare, chief underwriting officer at IronHealth^®, a division of Ironshore. “That information is critical to protect, because it’s critical to ensure patient safety.” A cyberattack could put patient lives at risk and open the hospital to even more costly medical malpractice and liability claims. Here are three interconnected risks that healthcare organizations might face in the wake of a ransomware attack — and how they can help mitigate their exposure.

1. Encrypted data and medical malpractice suits

Doctors and nurses rely on technology to do their jobs — so when those systems go down, hospitals are at an increased risk of medical malpractice suits. “We’ve become so reliant on technology. When we don’t have that technology and data, we become inhibited. The physician can’t practice medicine to its fullest, which can later be construed as negligence, because they weren’t able to provide adequate or appropriate care,” says Dennis Cook, president of IronHealth.

Lack of access to patient data is a major problem for healthcare providers. When bad actors encrypt critical patient data, like drug allergies or prescription information, healthcare workers are more likely to make a mistake that may harm a patient. Delayed lab reports and other critical information may cause hold-ups in treatment, which can have dangerous consequences. On top of that, ransomware attacks can also lock intake systems. That means that ambulances carrying patients in critical condition may be rerouted to facilities miles away — costing precious time that many patients can’t spare.

“We’ve become so reliant on technology. When we don’t have that technology and data, we become inhibited. The physician can’t practice medicine to its fullest, which can later be construed as negligence, because they weren’t able to provide adequate or appropriate care.” – Dennis Cook, president of IronHealth

In fact, the first medical malpractice suit for a ransomware-related death is already on its way to the courts. In July 2019, ransomware paralyzed the systems at the Springfield Medical Center in Mobile, Alabama. Computers across the hospital failed, including data from fetal heartbeat monitors in 12 delivery rooms. The suit alleges this outage led to the death of a newborn baby. The outcome of the case won’t be known for some time, but the human cost of ransomware is undeniable.