Ransomware

3 Ways to Protect Your Org Against Ransomware

Ransomware is not a new threat, but bad actors continue to launch these attacks because they are incredibly effective and prove to be very lucrative. Ransomware attacks rose 152% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020, according to SonicWall’s 2021 Cyber Threat Report. The collective cost of attacks in 2020 reached $29.1 million, an over 200% increase from 2019, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report. How can you protect your organization? There is no silver bullet to preventing ransomware attacks, but you can make your organization less vulnerable, read on for creating an effective strategy.

Protect against ransomware attacks with Okta

First and foremost, good security hygiene and an identity-first security strategy are critical. As Gartner noted in its Top Security and Risk Management Trends 2021 report, “Identity-first security has reached critical mass.” Here are 3 ways Okta can help your organization against ransomware attacks:

Advance your zero trust architecture

What is Zero Trust? Zero Trust ensures that only the right people have the right level of access, on the right device, to the right resource, in the right context. Start your Zero Trust implementation with multi-factor authentication (MFA), one of the most effective means of preventing account takeover. Use Okta Adaptive MFA to implement contextual access policies that differentiate between normal and abnormal behaviors and between low-risk and high-risk user actions. These signals are often the first indicators of malicious activity. Together, Adaptive MFA and Zero Trust can stop account takeovers. Adaptive MFA can help stop ransomware actors from gaining initial access, and a holistic Zero Trust architecture can prevent lateral movement if hackers do get in.

Secure access to all your critical resources

Get the freedom to choose the best productivity and security tools for your business, and then make sure all your connections to those tools are secure. Take advantage of Okta’s independent, neutral platform to connect to everything you need, including cloud apps, on-prem apps, and infrastructure. The Okta Integration Network (OIN) has 7,000+ pre-built integrations with all your most-used, best-of-breed apps. It uses modern protocols such as OIDC that mitigate the risks of password sprawl and allow you to set consistent, dynamic, context-based access policies for all resources.

Strong, easy-to-use authentication controls

Implement easy-to-use authentication options to reduce the number of misconfigurations and remove the incentive for users to set up kludgy alternatives. Striking the right balance between employees’ user experience and security is key to ensuring productivity while protecting your organization. With Adaptive MFA, you prompt for MFA only during risky authentication attempts using device, location, and network signals—so low-risk users can get to what they need quickly.

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