24 May 2017
Protecting your ERP from Ransomware
Ransomware has suddenly grown as one of the greatest threats to the computer devices and the digital sector. It attacked and infected thousands of computers and systems all around the world and still continues to be a threat to at least 99 countries. The recent outbreak was an exploit on a vulnerability that Microsoft patched in March. Menacing as it sounds, you can still protect yourself from this new threat if you take a few precautionary measures.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a new kind of malicious software that infects your computer and encodes or blocks all your data until a ransom amount is paid to them. This vulnerability exploited was made public allowing anybody to leverage it against computers that are not patched from March.
How does Ransomware affect your organization?
If an organization is affected by Ransomware, it will encrypt the files which will immediately render the organization unable to operate your business as usual. Most organizations and services today are heavily dependent on their computers and technology to work. By taking their data hostage, the attackers have a lot of leverage over the organization, ultimately losing confidential data and money.
Precautionary measures to keep your organization’s ERP system from suffering an attack
- Update and patch your computer
Since the outbreak, Microsoft has released several patches to protect your devices from being targeted. Keeping your system up to date is one of the best ways to keep your system secure from the vast majority of public malware exploits.
- Install an antivirus
If you can’t update your system, it would be wise to install anti-virus or security solutions that can deter the latest Ransomware.
- Disabling internet ports
According to Cisco’s threat intelligence team, the ransomware will attack through open 139 and 445 internet ports. If your company uses such ports, you should disable them until the system is patched.
