Cape Town, 19 Apr 2016
Global news headlines reveal how international banks, hospitals and businesses continue to be heavily hit by Ransomware. Statistics in South Africa remain vague as organisations are reluctant to reveal the extent to which they have been targeted by Ransomware.
However, anecdotal evidence points to this being a widespread issue - Panda is increasingly being approached by organisations looking for a real solution after being afflicted with Ransomware.
Very few IT security vendors have viable solutions to the growing threat. To avoid falling victim to this kind of attack, organisations are advised to steer clear of potentially harmful e-mail attachments and ensure they backup their data. In response to the growing problem, Panda has developed a solution - Adaptive Defense is a service which can accurately classify all running applications and only allows legitimate programs to run, protecting users from new-age threats such as Ransomware attacks, as well as APTs and zero-day attacks.
In recent incidents, Adaptive Defense was able to detect and block Ransomware variant Locky from running. "In one case, a Panda client came back to us within 24 hours of installing Adaptive Defense after they were notified that Locky had been detected and blocked from accessing their network," says Jeremy Matthews, Country Manager for Panda Security.
When the data was analysed, it was revealed that Panda's Adaptive Defense had detected and disabled Locky within mere seconds. Locky had attempted to gain access to their system on three separate occasions over two weeks and had been blocked before any damage could be done or any data could be encrypted. As a national organisation with over 400 endpoints, a Locky attack could have been devastating to the client's business.
This attack is indicative of the threats South Africans face daily from Ransomware, APTs and zero-day attacks, and how imperative it is that we begin to take a more proactive approach to protecting valuable business and personal data.
In order to protect ourselves against Ransomware, it has been recommended that organisations and individuals ensure their company and personal data be backed up and that they become vigilant of potentially harmful e-mail attachments and the like.
This is sound advice, but does not cut to the core of the problem. Ransomware and APTs are able to bypass conventional AV software and penetrate your network. Panda's Adaptive Defense is able to mitigate these threats by leveraging a new security model that provides full visibility of goodware and malware. This cloud-based solution delivers a proactive approach to protection in the current threat environment and falls into a new category of security referred to as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).