Research shows cyber criminals are employing ransomware less and less, and this is no surprise, says Chris Buchanan, client solutions director at Dell EMC South Africa.
“Ransomware isn’t worth it; t’s easier to just come and steal an organisation’s data.”
He says most organisations do not realise how critical their data is and what the implications are if they are compromised. “Of even more concern is that, on average, it takes organisations over 100 days to discover a data breach, meaning cyber criminals have had months to rifle through a business’s systems.”
As over 93% of attacks occur on the endpoint, it needs to be a key focus in securing the data. “Organisations that ignore the endpoint do so at their peril,” notes Buchanan.
Protecting the organisation’s data is not just good business practice, it’s also critical for protecting its reputation. “Most people would not do business with an organisation that has a reputation for sharing their personal information. That is why encrypting sensitive data is a critical first step.”
He says businesses often believe they are covered if they have an anti-virus solution. “Unfortunately, that is no longer true. Traditional anti-virus products are only able to address half the virus threats out there, and are not equipped to fight zero day attacks at all.
“A quick and easy way to test your anti-virus solution is to install next-generation anti-virus software (which is based on artificial intelligence) and run a discovery – in many cases, multiple viruses will be found on the device.”
Finally, he says to protect the company’s data, a data-centric encryption product that can be audited and managed centrally is much less intrusive, faster and easier to manage than the traditional full disc encryption solutions.
“To protect against modern threats and attacks, a threat defence anti-virus should replace the traditional anti-virus solution.”
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