In this episode of Valorem Visions, our expert Collins Dwamenah talks about the latest trends and updates on ransomware and threat protection.

Transcript

Collins - So, ransomware is a malware hackers used to infiltrate your systems, encrypt your data, and demand for ransom. Since ransomware restricts your access to important business files that are needed to do your business, companies will be forced to pay the ransom to continue with their regular business activities. Recently, these attacks have been more coordinated, which means that they are frequently more attacks and the attacks are more severe. The supply chain attacks, which seeks to take advantage of not just the supply chain company, but also the customers that it does business with. By so doing, it takes advantage of multiple companies with just one breach. There is Ransomware as a Service, which is a new business model organized by groups, you know, groups like Conti and REvil pressure their victims to pay up and even have payment portals for payments to be made. In most cases, you'll find multiple parties in one attack just to marry who is actually responsible for the attack. There's also Phishing which continues to be the main point of entry for around someone to slip into your network. Hackers are continually continuing to evolve their techniques in phishing, creating more convincing scenarios at scale.

Ransomware and Threat Protection seems to be the priority for leadership in organizations. The potential monetary loss and the effect it has on the perception the organization has with its customers and suppliers, and all its stakeholders are in the minds of CISOs, security managers, and business executives. SonicWall reported that its recorded more than 495 million ransomware attacks globally through September 2021, making it a record-breaking year in ransomware attacks. IBM cost of a data breach in 2021 shows that a ransomware attack costs $4.6 million in average. There are multiple suspicious activity reports for ransomware in the first half of 2021 than in any previous year, specifically 653 suspicious activity reports valued at $590 million in total. IDC in a 2021 ransomware survey shows that 37% of global organizations were victims of ransomware. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that ransomware will cost more than $256 million in damages by 2031, so it is important that as organizations are looking at securing the environment, they are protecting themselves against such threats.

So, here at Valorem Reply, our goal is to take a holistic approach to security. Security, as we say, is a journey and not a destination. So, protecting our data, our devices, and our entry point is more important than anything else. Instead of only looking at E-mail security, which is the main gateway for phishing emails, we are also using a zero-trust approach to security. Using Microsoft solutions like Exchange Online Protection, Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Conditional Access Policies, Azure Network and Azure AD Application Proxy, Microsoft Purview and Information Protection, Azure Security, and on top of all that, the Microsoft 365 Defender Suite, which gives you a cohesive platform for threat protection and a seamless connection for all your data sources for better management. We also custom security roadmaps for organizations. We have a security roadmap called Security Compass that seeks to set you up in a direction for various security goals in your organization to take advantage of so they can be better prepared for the new and emerging threats in their security landscape.