Anti-Ransomware Solution

Key Points

What you'll learn in this article

Explore how to defend your organization against ransomware with advanced anti-ransomware protection:

Most ransomware attacks start with email: Anti-ransomware solutions focus on blocking malicious links and attachments in emails, using secure gateways, URL inspection, and sandboxing to prevent infection and stop threats before they reach users.
A multi-layered approach is essential: The best protection combines advanced detection engines, threat intelligence, security awareness training, frequent data backups, and continuity solutions to minimize both the risk and impact of ransomware attacks.
If an attack succeeds, rapid response and recovery are critical: Disconnect infected devices, report incidents to authorities, and rely on IT professionals to restore data from backups—paying ransoms is not recommended

Defend your organization with anti-ransomware technology

As ransomware attacks occur with increasing frequency, companies everywhere are seeking effective anti-ransomware solutions to defend against these costly disruptions to business. Ransomware attacks like Locky and the Crypto virus can impede productivity by taking "hostage" and blocking access to a user's files, and relinquishing access only after a fee or "ransom" is paid.

To defend against these attacks, anti-ransomware technology must be focused on email security. Most ransomware attacks are launched from an email or spam message that contains a malicious URL or attachment. When the user clicks on the link or opens the attachment, the virus executes a file that quickly encrypts documents and renders them unusable.

By preventing users from accessing suspicious URLs and attachments, anti-ransomware technology can prevent most attacks. But since attack methods are constantly evolving, it's an enormous challenge to defeat every ransomware threat. That's why anti-ransomware technology must also provide solutions to minimize the impact of attacks when they are successful.

Anti-ransomware solutions from Mimecast

Mimecast provides anti-ransomware solutions that can prevent most attacks and significantly mitigate the damage of any successful attack.

More than anti-ransomware software

Mimecast is an all-in-one subscription service providing tools for email security, archiving and continuity. As a cloud-based service, Mimecast is easy to implement and manage, eliminating the need for multiple on-premises solutions procured from various vendors.

Mimecast provides a multi-layered approach to anti-ransomware technology and email security. Using state-of-the-art detection engines and sophisticated threat intelligence, Mimecast not only helps to protect from ransomware but to stop phishing, spear-phishing, CEO fraud, data leaks and other threats. Mimecast security solutions also include easy-to-use tools for sending secure messages in large files.

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How Mimecast anti-ransomware services work

For ransomware prevention, Mimecast provides Targeted Threat Protection tools to block users from accessing suspicious URLs for opening malicious attachments.

Mimecast scans all incoming and archived emails, scanning destination websites every time a user clicks on a link. Links to sites that may initiate a ransomware, phishing, or spear-phishing attack are blocked.

Mimecast also scans attachments to block ransomware by preemptively sandboxing any suspicious documents.
If users require immediate access to attachments, Mimecast can transcribe the attachment to a safe format, neutralizing any threat within the code.
To minimize the impact of an attack, Mimecast Mailbox Continuity allows users to continue working with email even when primary email servers are down during an attack or outage.
Mimecast Enterprise Information Archiving provides a robust and redundant repository of email data in the cloud, helping to prevent data loss and speed ransomware recovery after an attack.

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What is anti-ransomware?

Anti-ransomware solutions are technologies, training, and best practices that can help organizations better prevent ransomware attacks and recover more easily when attacks are successful.

Ransomware is a form of malware, or a malicious software program, that attackers use to block users and organizations from accessing files and data on their computers. To regain access, attackers demand a ransom that must be paid in cryptocurrency.

Ransomware is usually spread through phishing emails that trick users into revealing login information, clicking a link, or visiting a website that enables attackers to download ransomware. Cybercriminals may also exploit vulnerabilities in software or systems to gain unauthorized access to a network and to download ransomware onto devices.

How do anti-ransomware technologies work?

Anti-ransomware solutions use a variety of means to detect and block ransomware attacks and minimize the damage of a successful attack.

Secure email and web gateways can serve as anti-ransomware technologies by inspecting email and web traffic and filtering or blocking any messages or traffic that are deemed suspicious. Secure email gateways using advanced anti-ransomware solutions typically look for indicators like anomalies in email headers, domain similarity, recently established domains, and suspect language in the body of the email.

The best anti-ransomware solutions can inspect URLs and attachments in email, blocking users from clicking on links or opening files that are determined to be malicious.

DNS authentication services can search for signs of sender spoofing by employing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols to determine if a sender’s address is legitimate.

Anti-spam and anti-malware services can help to filter out and block email containing known ransomware attacks.

What is anti-ransomware awareness training?

Security awareness training is an essential part of anti-ransomware efforts since many ransomware attacks and other security breaches are caused in part by human error. Effective security awareness training can help users to be able to more easily spot the signs of a phishing email that may contain ransomware.

Users can be educated about phishing attempt indicators such as poor grammar and spelling mistakes, an urgent or threatening tone in the message of the email, or a request to share sensitive information. Security awareness training may also cover how to identify false links within the body of the email, anomalies in the sender’s email address, and other common indicators that an email may be malicious.

What should you do if anti-ransomware fails?

Even the best anti-ransomware technologies are unlikely to catch every attack every time. When a ransomware attack is successful, the first step is to disconnect an infected computer from the q2snetwork and from any storage devices shared with other computers. This helps to prevent the ransomware from spreading.

Next, reporting ransomware attacks to federal authorities can help to bolster anti-ransomware efforts. Ransomware attacks can be reported to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at www.us-cert.gov/report and the FBI through a local field office.

Recovering data and removing ransomware is a challenge best left to IT teams and third-party providers. These professionals may be able to decrypt files or decide it's more advantageous to wipe infected computers clean and recover data from a recent backup copy.

What is the best anti-ransomware?

The best anti-ransomware protection is a multilayered approach to security that combines a variety of anti-ransomware solutions.

In addition to security awareness training, anti-ransomware, anti-malware, and a secure email gateway, organizations can mitigate the damage of a ransomware attack by:

Maintaining frequent backups.
Requiring two-factor authentication protocols that make it harder for attackers to use stolen credentials to access the network.
Deploying email and file continuity solutions that enable users to access their data even when the organization is under a ransomware attack.

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