Today's enterprises operate in a digitally connected world, where technology and connectivity are at the heart of their digital transformation strategies and operations. However, organizations must contend with hyper-exposure to cyber risk due to hyper-connectivity.
Ransomware, one of the most prevalent threats today, is one of the most disruptive and destructive risks that businesses face. As per the Cyber Security Breaches survey, 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber-attack in the previous 12 months, which is consistent with previous years. Because modern enterprises rely heavily on data to run their operations, cybercriminals can effectively shut down an entire organization by stealing their data.
Furthermore, ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated and multi-layered. For example, cyber perpetrators can extort more money from their victims by encrypting and exfiltrating their data and threatening to expose the information on data leak sites or underground forums.
In fact, ransomware has become such a significant risk that NordLocker's analysis examined the global distribution of ransomware attacks between January 2020 and July 2022, discovering that small businesses are the most vulnerable, accounting for nearly two-thirds (62%) of all attacks in the UK. Similarly, international law firm RPC discovered that the highest targeted sectors for UK ransomware attacks were finance, insurance, credit, education, and healthcare.
So, what can businesses do to protect themselves? Here are five critical considerations:
1. Enhance cyber hygiene
2. Adopt a zero-trust policy
3. Secure your data
4. Invest in a security operations center to strengthen your defenses.
5. Safeguard your digital ecosystem
Organizations can better defend their continuity while staying one step ahead of cyber adversaries by seeking a trusted cybersecurity partner to help evaluate their security posture, improve their defenses, and boost their cybersecurity strategy to the next level by seeking a trusted cybersecurity partner to help evaluate their security posture, improve their defenses, and elevate their cybersecurity strategy to next level.