Not only are customers inconvenienced, ongoing technology troubles with no definite cause, poor communication on all fronts, and no end in sight doesn’t just impact your customers, it also destroys your employees’ morale, leading to hiring and retention problems as well as malicious insider threats.

Ransomware isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, updated varieties like double extortion ransomware are entering the scene to cause more damage to businesses that fail to guard against the most likely infection vector: phishing.

Ransomware is everywhere and it’s most commonly delivered through a phishing email, and this gang has been particularly active lately, especially against healthcare targets as COVID-19 research and treatment data remains a hot commodity in Dark Web markets.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as 100% foolproof cybersecurity. Last month, we walked readers through 5 steps to implement a solid, multi-layered NIST-compliant security protocol. Many businesses right now are solid as far as the first 3 steps are concerned: Identify, Protect and Detect.

Ransomware is a persistent and pernicious threat to any business. Paying the criminals doesn’t guarantee the safety of stolen data – but blocking the initial attack does.