Ransomware: Victims have small window of opportunity to stop an attack dead in its tracks

Ransomware: Victims have small window of opportunity to stop an attack dead in its tracks

The more ransomware proliferates in healthcare the greater understanding that researchers are gaining about the malicious code. The latest: While it may appear that hospitals hit by a ransomware attack are automatically held hostage, one security specialist said that is not exactly the case.

“Recent strains understand how to move around a network, to encrypt not only files on employees’ end-points, but also on networked file shares. The impacts to healthcare organizations are therefore growing exponentially,” said Nir Polak, CEO of data security vendor Exabeam. “But this also means that encryption of larger data-sets will take more time, and therefore these firms have a window for detecting and stopping ransomware.”

In a new report titled “Threat Research Report: Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack,” Exabeam offers tips to healthcare organizations stung by the persistent pounding of ransomware. To help guide its recommendations for handling a ransomware infection, Exabeam said it detonated various strains of malware in its tech lab and recorded the effects.

Read full article by Bill Siwicki at Healthcare IT News>>