How to Defend against Ransomware with Application Whitelisting
Ransomware Continues to plague cybersecurity organisations all across Australia. According to Business News Australia, Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia and New Zealand hold the highest rate of Ransomware attacks in the world. The best way to combat the rising ransomware attacks is through effective Application Whitelisting
In the first quarter of 2020, ransom demands made by operators rose significantly, increasing by 33 percent quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, the average ransom payout is currently at $111,605, and is often paid by large enterprises.
This statistic should come as no surprise for Australian cybersecurity experts who are actively trying to keep the bad actors at bay. Ransomware, refuses to go away and moreover continues to evolve by becoming more potent than ever.
The most recent ransomware making headlines is Sodinokibi is now known to penetrate locked and encrypted files. Along with Phobos and Ryuk it’s one of the top three ransomware families globally.
How to Protect Against Ransomware?
The only effective defence against Ransomware is Application Whitelisting. A critical part of the ASD Essential Eight, Application Whitelisting is proactive and often the most secure layer in an environment.
Application Whitelisting is now available as a mature solution and can be deployed across an organisation’s entire environment as a part of their layered security approach.
Another benefit of Application Whitelisting is the ability to have increased visibility of endpoint applications and block threats before they can reach any part of the network.
Additionally, to stop Ransomware and malware in dynamic environments, file-level whitelisting is an essential tool across the entire organisation including helpdesk, administrators and management.
Airlock Digital and Achievable Whitelisting
Airlock Digital offers workflow-based Application whitelisting that excels in dynamically changing environments. Airlock Digital is a proactive solution and prevents any malicious code from running, thereby reducing any damage to the network
With Airlock Digital, Application whitelisting is simple and repeatable and provides a centralised overview of all files within an organisation. Additionally, Airlock Digital is lightweight, proactive, and a key component in helping organisations achieve compliance with the ASD Essential Eight, PCI-DSS and HIPAA.
Summary
As Ransomware continues to evolve and grow, its important for organisations to have a multi-layered and effective security approach in place. Organisations, which have not yet implemented Application Whitelisting need to include this strategy as a proactive barrier against Ransomware.
Read what the ACSC has to say about Application Control and Application Whitelisting.
Watch the video from Airlock Digital HERE. Sign up for a Demo
Sources:
https://www.itproportal.com/news/sodinokibi-ransomware-can-now-penetrate-locked-files/
https://techtalk.pcmatic.com/2018/08/16/ransomware-application-whitelisting/
