How to Minimize the Threat of a Ransomware Attack with Help from a Cloud Solution Provider

Cloud Migration Challenges and Solutions for Small Business with WatServ

How to Minimize the Threat of a Ransomware Attack with Help from a Cloud Solution Provider

By WatServ
August 2, 2021

Ransomware. Hopefully, you haven’t experienced the predicament of being held hostage by it. In this article, we’ll cover how a cloud solutions provider can help reduce the risk of a ransomware attack. 

What is Ransomware?

First, let’s quickly define what ransomware is. CISA states:

“Ransomware is a type of malicious software, or malware, designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid.”

Jason Gumpert, of MSDynamicsWorld.com and a friend of WatServ, recently brought to my attention an unfortunate story published on Rental Management Magazine: Dealing with a security nightmare.
 
In short, this article explains how the owners of Triangle Equipment, a Bobcat distributor dealer in North and South Carolina, were hacked. The hackers encrypted the company’s data and demanded them to deliver $2,500 in bitcoins in exchange for the key to decrypt the data.
 
Not a fun day.
 
When Jason brought this story to my attention, he also asked how a cloud solutions provider (like us at WatServ) can protect their hosted clients from ransomware and incidents like this. Let’s take a look.

How a Cloud Solutions Provider Can Help Protect Your Business from Ransomware

First, we need to accept that completely preventing cybersecurity threats is unrealistic. If we’ve learned anything from the constant stream of cybersecurity breaches, it’s that threats are inevitable. The best thing to do is reduce the chance of threats and have a response plan in place for when a threat does present itself.

For instance, at WatServ, we have a collection of services that work to safeguard our clients’ cloud environments.

Our standard services (included with WatServ’s CloudOps managed service) offer:

 

1. Foundational security pillars – based on CISA’s defense in depth concept

This approach begins with protection at the client connection. Additional layers of defense occur at the network, infrastructure, application and database levels. Each one of these layers is protected by access controls and segregation. Some examples of protective mechanisms at the layers are advanced malware protection, firewalls, multi-factor authentication, multi-tiered network segregation, password vault and access controls and reviews.

Layers of Defense

 
 
 
Layers of Defense for Cyber Security
 
 
 

2. Managed detection and response (MDR) services on hosted environments

WatServ uses Alert Logic’s MDR services to proactively monitor the security of our cloud environments across public, private or hybrid. In the event that a threat is detected, or indicators of a compromise are present, WatServ can cut off the external threat midway. In the case of the Triangle Equipment ransomware attack, WatServ could have stopped the encryption of their data midway, saving part of it.

 

3. Backups on Azure or Google

In the unfortunate instance of a threat, the customer can restore their environment to a point prior to the threat. WatServ performs backups of our customers’ data for 30 days or longer. Restoring from backup is relatively painless, when compared to building a new environment from scratch.

At WatServ, we also offer optional add-on services (incident response and security awareness training) listed below.

 

4. Incident response

In addition to MDR, WatServ offers an Incident Response service in the event of a threat. In the Triangle Equipment situation, the story alludes to the owners having to scramble to find cybersecurity experts to help them manage the situation. To avoid this, WatServ clients can purchase our Incident Response service on retainer so that these services are secured and ready for immediate deployment upon threat detection. Clients get peace of mind that they have security specialists ready-to-go.

 

5. Security awareness training

As per Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing – a form of social engineering – is the number one cause of data breaches. Security Awareness Training is an ongoing training program that teaches a company’s users to detect phishing emails and other types of social engineering threats. The security of a business’ computing environment (and data) must start with each individual user. By participating in Security Awareness Training, clients will see their employees become smarter to detecting social engineering instances. For example, some companies can expect to see an improvement from +60% click rates on phishing emails to sub-20% click rates over a 12-month period.

As painful as the journey was for Triangle Equipment, their story ended relatively well. Triangle paid the $2,500 ransom and, after 3 weeks, recovered their business operations. (Compare this to a recent story on two cities in Florida having to pay $1 million dollars to ransomware. Ouch!)

At WatServ, we help protect our clients from cybersecurity threats, like ransomware, by leveraging our advanced CloudOps tools and internal expertise to detect and remediate security issues.

 

Worried About Ransomware? Fight Back Today.

If you’re worried about ransomware, or would like to learn more about our services, contact us today at [email protected] or 1-866-531-2598.

 

Special thanks to Triangle Equipment for sharing their story!

WatServ demonstrates best-in-class capability and market leadership through proven technology and customer commitment.​

About

WatServ is an IT solutions provider that helps organizations digitally transform through cloud technologies and managed services.

Serving clients as a trusted advisor since 2006, WatServ provides experience-tested, strategic solutions across all stages of the digital transformation journey. Clients choose WatServ to migrate infrastructure and applications to the cloud, secure critical data, implement disaster recovery, deploy virtual desktop, enable data-readiness for productivity solutions and manage IT environments.

Our clients span a broad range of industries, and we’re a global supplier of IT services for many Brookfield Portfolio Companies. To help our mid-size clients, we provide scalable offerings that simplify cloud adoption and drive business optimization. For enterprise clients, we co-create cloud solutions that enable stability and efficiency for complex IT tools and processes.

With more than 15 years of experience, WatServ has a track record of delivering quantifiable business results and a superior client experience. Ranked as one of Canada’s Top 100 Solution Providers for the last three years in a row, WatServ is always on.

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