8 Major Steps to Take care of Ransomware Attack: Ransomware Response Guide for Businesses

Ransomware is the biggest threat on the internet as it puts the risk of loss of sensitive data. It can all start by clicking on the wrong link and ultimately leading to all your business data being encrypted by the black hat that will only unlock it after you agree to pay a ransom in some cryptocurrency is hard to trace. These attackers have become very much advanced with time and employ various tactics to get hold of your sensitive business data so that heavy ransom can be demanded from you. These kinds of attacks have made businesses realized the importance of the best antivirus for a ransomware attack.

But what to do when your business suffers a ransomware attack. What is to be done to ransomware minimize the effects of ransomware attacks. The business must be prepared to encounter such attacks; otherwise, there is no coming back from it. There must be an action plan that the business must follow. This will help in avoiding panic and chaos and thus help the business to rectify the situation. There are some measures that businesses must employ to low down the risk of attack. These are mentioned as below:

• Isolate the affected system: The first thing that the business must do after a ransomware attack is to isolate the affected system. It must be your business’s top priority. This is because the ransomware will rake the network, encrypt the files that are stored on the network, and similarly try the same thing with other systems of your business which can cause serious damage to your sensitive data. To contain the infection and ensure that ransomware attack does not get spread to other networks, the infected system must be isolated and removed from the network as fast as you could.
• Secure Backups of the system: Backups of the system is indeed very important as they play a vital role in remediation. They need to be secured as they can also be attacked by ransomware, from which it will be difficult for the business to recover. Modern ransomware attackers are aware that backups are the only hope for businesses to recover. Thus they also try to encrypt or delete the business backups to hinder their recovery process. To secure their backup, the business must disconnect the backups from the business network or lock down the backup system’s access until everything gets resolved and gets to normal. The use of the best freeware malware removal can also be of great help to businesses to get rid of malware attacks.

• Avoid maintenance tasks on the affected system: The businesses need to disable the maintenance tasks such as file removal etc. On the affected system, these tasks might intervene with other important files crucial for the investigation process. The ransomware attackers are now more intelligent as they make use of maintenance tasks to store valuable information such as encryption keys etc. Thus by disabling the maintenance tasks, the businesses will be on the right track of recovery.
• Backup of Infected system: The next step that the business must take in the event of a ransomware attack is backing up the infected system after it has been isolated from the business network. The backing up will help the business to prevent the loss of data. This is because some ransomware attack contains bugs that can lead to loss of sensitive data of the business. Thus backing up of data will maintain the integrity of business data. This will help the business to be prepared in advance in case something wrong happen during the decryption process. Another reason why it is important to back up the infected system is that encrypted data is not of much importance to the business, and there is no urgency for the business to recover it. But it might be needed in the future, so it is better for the business must get the backup so that there is no difficulty afterward.
• Quarantine the affected system: The business must keep in mind that they should never remove or reformat the infected system immediately. Rather they must quarantine the system so that infection can be analyzed, and thus investigators can easily identify the strain responsible for the ransomware attack. Removing the system will make it impossible for the investigator team to examine the procedure. In case the malware is still functioning than before quarantine, the focus must be on the memory dump. Memory dump may also lead to valuable information such as key material that has been using to encrypt the files. This can make the decryption process possible without the need to pay the ransom.
• Identify the source of virus attack: Identifying and investigating the source of infection is vital as it will help the business to understand how the system was attacked and what is the extent of the infection on the affected system. This will be useful not only to solve the current situation but also to help the business to ensure that something like this does not happen in the future. It will act as a safeguard against all vulnerabilities.
• Identify the Ransomware: The next important step is to take measures to identify the ransomware strain. By identifying the right ransomware, the business can work better in decrypting the files. Also, one may find the free decryption tool that makes the work a lot easier.
• Decision: The next step is to take an important decision of whether the business must pay the ransom or not. This is the last resort when the backups of the affected system are completely damaged, and there is no free decrypting available. This option might seem the convenient option as one gets back to their work normally, but this option must be chosen when all other options have been exhausted, and there is a risk of loss of business data that could put them out of business.

Thus these are the important steps through which businesses can take care of ransomware attacks. These steps will surely help the business in mitigating the effects of the attack. Every business must install the best free antivirus with ransomware protection that will prevent future ransomware attacks from happening.