Poll: What Security Measures Are Most Effective In Fighting Ransomware?

Stop_Sign The Spiceworks staff wrote: "Years after CryptoLocker raised its ugly head — setting off an unfortunate security trend — ransomware continues to be a rather painful thorn in the side of IT professionals and organizations around the world.

In 2017, we saw entire companies and government agencies shut down for days thanks to WannaCry and NotPetya, sometimes costing a single organization hundreds of millions of dollars. And things haven't gotten that much better recently.

For example, in March 2018, the city of Atlanta fell victim to ransomware that brought city services down (airport Wi-Fi, online bill pay systems, police warrant systems, job application forms, and more) and forced many employees to shut down their systems for five days. Similar attacks have been launched against cities in the U.S. and around the world.

A ransomware security poll

There isn't one magic bullet that can solve all IT security problems. Instead, companies must employ a layered strategy to reduce the risk of a ransomware infection. But are all security measures created equal?

Ideally, organizations would be able to follow all security best practices; in reality, however, organizations have to prioritize. Here's our question: If you landed in a brand new environment and had to choose, where would you start or focus your security efforts? That is, which security measures do you think are most important / are most effective when it comes to fighting ransomware?

Pick your favorites in our anonymous poll below (you can choose up to three options) and join the conversation in the comments!"

The poll asked: "What security measures are most effective in fighting ransomware?" and 2209 IT pros answered, including me which are the bolded options:

I strongly suggest you get a quote for new-school security awareness training for your organization and find out how affordable this is. You simply have got to start training and phishing your users ASAP. If you don't, the bad guys will, because your filters never catch all of it. Get a quote now and you will be pleasantly surprised.