What to know about ransomware to keep from becoming a victim

Late June was a rough time for not only high profile corporations and government offices hit by malware, but also for at least two hospitals whose data was ransomed by hackers. Computers at the affected health care organizations went down when they came under the ransomware attack, and doctors and nurses had no way to access patient data, policy and procedure documents or anything else. Surgeries had to be postponed, and labs shut down indefinitely until records could again be accessed. The electronic attack posed lessons for organizations and individuals alike.

What a nightmare for everyone involved! Imagine if it was your organization hit by malware. If you already are a victim of ransomware, visit this step-by-step guide for what to do next. Otherwise, what do you need to know to avoid that scenario?

DON’T BE A VICTIM OF RANSOMWARE

First, caution your entire staff about opening or downloading files on any networked devices. Hackers have gotten incredibly sneaky about crafting emails and social media messages that look legitimate. Even if the device is not networked, the hackers might still get to your address book and send the email to more members of the staff, so steering clear of opening any attachments in the first place is the best course of action.

Next, know that you can’t be complacent just because your content is on the cloud. You might assume that would keep your data safe, but if you have cloud storage — as opposed to cloud backup — you would be mistaken. The virus could get into your files before they make it into cloud storage, and there would be no way for you to get back what you originally created. For an individual, that might mean only one or two files before you realize what is happening, but for a healthcare system with multiple locations, it could mean hundreds or thousands of lost files. That said, cloud backup can, in fact, save you from having to pay a ransom to hackers. Cloud backup allows you to revert to previous versions of your file, so you can get back to a version before the file was corrupted by malware.

KEEP YOUR POLICY AND PROCEDURE DOCUMENTS SAFE

PolicyStat backs up all of your data on three levels to make sure you’re able to access what you need when you need it. Between daily disk-level backups, rolling 5-minute backups, and additional encrypted backups, PolicyStat strives for a mean time to recovery of just 15 minutes.

Backups are just one piece of PolicyStat’s security. Component redundancy keeps your system running even if one piece fails, and our deployment automation tools and frequent application update schedule keeps up our disaster recovery process at all times.

Give us a call at 1.877.988.STAT or set up a demo to learn more about keeping your documents safe with PolicyStat.