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Secondly , businesses need to practice impeccable digital hygiene . This includes mandatory training for all employees so that they recognise potential attacks , understand who to report them to , and understand why this is important . The more people buy-in to the need for good digital hygiene , the more alert and willing to take the blinkers off they become .
Dave Russell , VP , Enterprise Strategy , Veeam
Finally , never ever pay the ransom . Organisations that pay ransoms feed the ‘ easy pay day ’ perception that means cybercriminals keep doing it . As soon as businesses stop paying ransoms , we ’ ll see a reduction in the popularity of ransomware as an extortion technique .
While businesses who suffer cyberattacks are indeed victims , they are responsible for protecting any data that they use , process and store . Paying off cybercriminals to get systems back online is an unsustainable defence strategy . As governments become more active in seeking to prevent the spread of ransomware , we may see businesses who do so investigated and reprimanded by independent regulators .
Clearly , dealing with the relentless and mass scale of cybercriminal activity against businesses and individuals will be an international effort across both the public and private sector .
While it is important that cybercrime is properly ‘ criminalised ’ and that the perpetrators are brought to justice , businesses must understand the responsibility they have to their customers and employees to protect any data within their jurisdiction .
This can only be done by implementing a Modern Data Protection strategy that combines effective front-line cybersecurity defenses with a comprehensive approach to data backup and Disaster Recovery . p
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