How a Ransom Note Changes Your Security Philosophy Forever

Abstract

Every company has a singular defining moment, a line in the sand that changes how they operate forever. For some businesses that don’t prioritize network security, it can be something as simple as a ransom note from a hacker that teaches them a profound lesson that they will never forget. A ransomware attack that your business is unprepared for can be a death knell for your organization, but it doesn’t have to be.

With the right preparation, your business can overcome and even prevent these breaches outright. Here’s how it’s done.

Ditch the Break-Fix Before It Breaks Your Business for Good

First, we need to talk about the IT management model that gets a business into a ransomware attack in the first place: break-fix IT.

In the old break-fix IT model, the IT provider only makes money when your business is suffering. If your network is down, their billable hours go up. Contrast this to a transition to a managed services model, where the provider is incentivized to keep your technology safe, secure, and operational. Sure, you pay a predictable, flat monthly fee to maintain your entire infrastructure, but that’s a small price to pay to keep your systems working the way they should. If your business experiences downtime, then the provider loses money.

That’s the big benefit of working with managed IT, especially from a security standpoint. The financial incentives of the provider align with your business’ goals, so the company benefits from keeping you secure—especially from ransomware.

Replace Post-Incident Recovery with Pre-Incident Prevention

If you’re waiting around for a security breach before you address security issues, that’s both counterproductive and problematic. It’s like waiting for your car’s engine to seize before you check the oil.

By investing in automated, real-time monitoring and patch management, your business can catch issues before they ever escalate into full-blown crises. This is how a managed service provider treats cybersecurity. We can neutralize vulnerabilities, hunt down unpatched software, address weak access points, and discover anomalous behavior in the background of your processes, all without even being on-site.

We don’t wait for you to call us with a problem; instead, we actively seek out issues that need to be addressed before you have to pick up the phone.

Implement an Isolated, Infallible Redundancy

The biggest tragedy of any ransomware attack is when the company thinks they have backup in place, but forget that it’s physically attached to the network and therefore also corrupted by the threat.

Instead of relying on these types of local backup solutions, we recommend you implement strict, multi-tiered backup infrastructures that practice the 3-2-1-1 rule: three copies, two on different types of media, one copy stored off-site, and one copy kept completely immutable. That means it’s essentially locked down and airtight, impossible to modify or delete.

Even if a hacker manages to take over your live network, your backups remain out of reach and, therefore, safe.

Ransomware can be a brutal lesson in the dangers of complacency. It proves that in the modern digital landscape, treating IT as an afterthought isn’t enough—and failing to take it seriously could threaten the existence of your business.

Don’t wait around to learn this lesson the hard way. Let NetMGM protect your business so you can stay safe, secure, and productive. Learn more by calling us at 888-748-2525.