{"id":1760,"date":"2017-06-28T11:23:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T15:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/identity-management\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2017-06-28T11:23:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T15:23:52","slug":"stop-ransomware-wannacry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/identity-management\/stop-ransomware-wannacry\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Ransomware Attacks like Petya and WannaCry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Friday, May 19th the world woke up to one of the biggest cyberattacks\u00a0in history. The WannaCry ransomware attack spread like wildfire through vulnerable Windows machines across the globe late last week, infecting over 230,000 machines in 150 countries and blocking users from their data unless they agreed to pay approximately\u00a0$300 in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

The attack\u2019s spread finally slowed when security researcher MalwareTech<\/a> accidentally discovered a killswitch for the malware by registering a domain for a DNS sinkhole found in the virus\u2019s code, but by then the damage was already done.<\/p>\n

Now, another attack is ripping through the world’s unsecured and unpatched systems using the same exploit as WannaCry. This new malware, known as “Petya” has quickly spread throughout the globe, infecting multiple large companies including the advertiser WPP, food company Mondelez, legal firm DLA Piper and Danish shipping and transport firm Maersk,.These attacks, amongst others, has made one thing abundantly clear: ransomware is the number one cyber threat to businesses in 2017 and for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

The situation is serious\u2014hackers have been know to request ransoms up to $73,000<\/a> per attack. With numbers like that, it’s unsurprising that ransomware payments totaled over $1 billion in 2016<\/a>, skyrocketing from just\u00a0$34M paid in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Bitcoin payoffs aren’t the only cost of an attack. The cost of disinfecting machines, stabilizing systems and restoring data often dwarfs the initial ransom. What’s worse, it could be days or even weeks after an attack before your network is fully operational. That makes prevention and preparation for ransomware attacks a worthwhile investment.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the best way to make sure your organization is prepared to fend off ransomware stick-ups?<\/p>\n

In a pertinent blog post<\/a> from April, Identity Automation’s Scott Kortright laid out a few best practices for preventing ransomware infections, and limiting the damage it can do once inside:<\/p>\n