Page 126 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

Ragnar Locker: This is one of the most recent piece of ransomware. Ragnar Locker is a ransomware-
type, designed not only to encrypt data but also to terminate installed programs (like ConnectWise and
Kaseya) that are commonly used by managed service providers and various Windows services.

How to Prevent a Ransomware Attack

There is no perfect solution to prevent attacks of this nature, however, there is a set of good practices
that can be applied in order to minimize the impact of data encryption malware. I can enumerate some
of them below.

● Use live, active anti-virus which are regularly updated.
● Patch updates regularly. Update all software including operating systems, network devices,
applications, mobile phones, and other software.
● Maintain a proper backup mechanism and made it mandatory.
● Regularly test the recovery function of backup and restore procedure and also test the data
integrity of backups.
● Conduct simulated ransomware preparedness test.
● Install Microsoft Office viewers and always keep macros disabled.
● Limit end-user access to mapped drives and don’t enable file sharing.
● Don’t enable remote services. The organizations with RDP, VPN, proxies, and servers are to be
provided with better IT Security standards.

Take home message: Implement effective security awareness training to improve cyber education and
don’t download anything from unknown sources.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –June 2020 Edition 126
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