Ransomware Attacks – Help Stop Them with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

The moment that you’re hit with a ransomware attack is a moment that you’ll never forget. Whether your data becomes encrypted and inaccessible or even worse, you have to shut down operations altogether like in the recent Colonial Pipeline attack, recovering from a hack is expensive, reputationally damaging, and downright stressful.

As ransomware attacks become even more viral with the creation of easily accessible tools like Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) and criminals break into networks ranging from major meatpacking companies like JBS to supply chain attacks on software vendors that can affect up to 1500 businesses at once, companies cannot afford to ignore this threat. Even more alarming, we’re seeing this trend grow across every industry, including healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. On top of an already risky state-of-the-world, the rapid rise of remote workforces during the pandemic exacerbated vulnerabilities, because more workers are accessing company data and services via unsecured home networks and unhardened personal devices. These situations widened common attack vectors like unpatched software, social engineering, and poor password management.

Protecting yourself against ransomware attacks and similar criminality requires a multi-pronged approach that some security experts call Defense in Depth (DiD). DiD has been defined as “an information security approach in which a series of security mechanisms and controls are thoughtfully layered throughout a computer network to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the network and the data within.