Healthcare organizations are a high value target for ransomware cyberattacks due to the sensitive nature of their information. Whether a small business or large, ransomware does not discriminate when it comes to obtaining vital data. If a business is unable to recover information for clients from a ransomware attack the result can bring not only loss of data – but clients as well.
The first step to protecting your business is understanding what ransomware is and how you could be vulnerable. Next, ask yourself what options are available for protecting your business. In taking these steps your business is already on it’s way to becoming safe.
Ransomware is a program designed by people looking to “hold hostage” your information. The program infiltrates your infrastructure and takes control of your business by locking important information behind a random password. In order to access the information a ransom is demanded for the password. The good news is that this process can be eliminated by backing up your businesses data.
It is nearly impossible to fully protect a business from ransomware due to the many points of contact between you business and your clients. In fact, 90% of healthcare organizations have been breached in the last year from ransomware attacks. The biggest step a business can take is creating a systemic response to the incident. Let’s look at an example of a good response versus a bad response.
In a bad response situation ransomware has taken and is holding hostage vital data from a business. The only option to recover this data is to pay the ransom amount and hope the decryption password provided works. From this situation a business has lost it’s ability to operate for a given time due to the ransom and has also lost much needed capital. It is also important to note this situation is a best case scenario for a business which has lost it’s data from ransomware.
In a good situation this business could have restored it’s data in hours and retained the capital demanded by the ransomware. This is due to steps taken prior to the incident to back up vital data. Backing up data is not only important for good business practices but it also protects from attacks such as ransomware. Does your business have all of its information protected from ransomware?
Read the full guide here: Health Security IT
