Cybereason Declares War on Ransomware

Cybereason today issued a ‘call to action’ for every small business in the United States as part of the Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week 2017. Cybereason urges the nearly 30 million small businesses in the United States to install the company’s free anti-ransomware product RansomFree to protect themselves from ransomware attacks that cybercriminals are successfully carrying out against millions of businesses.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system or computer files until a sum of money is paid. Most ransomware variants encrypt the files on the affected computer, making them inaccessible, and demand a ransom payment to restore access.

Any business with an online presence will eventually face a ransomware attack if they haven’t already. Cyber criminals lock and encrypt files, then threaten to destroy them unless a ransom is paid through the untraceable electronic payment form known at Bitcoin. The ransom amount varies from several hundreds of dollars when targeting individuals, to tens of thousands of dollars when companies are being attacked.

The ransomware attack statistics are staggering. The Department of Justice recently reported that more than 4,000 ransomware attacks occur daily against businesses. The FBI estimates that more than $1 billion was paid in ransoms in 2016. Cybereason believes the attacks might be double what is being reported and the dollar value of paid ransoms are likely a lot higher and in the range of $3-$5 billion.

“RansomFree is, as the name suggests, free, and when I tested it with real-world, nasty ransomware, it did yeoman service. The consequences of a ransomware attack are dire, so a second layer of defense like Cybereason RansomFree is a great idea. It's free; go ahead and install it,” said Neil Rubenking, lead analyst for Security, PC Magazine.

To read Rubenking’ full review in PC Magazine, visit: http://www.pcmag.com/review/352983/cybereason-ransomfree

“Ransomware is the single biggest cyber threat today facing small businesses. Cybereason developed RansomFree to help small businesses and organizations that lack the resources to defend themselves against this type of cybercrime,” said Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of Cybereason. “Today, more than 200,000 businesses and consumers are using RansomFree. RansomFree will protect small businesses from 99 percent of ransomware strains. It has been such a success that Cybereason is making ransomware attacks unprofitable for cybercriminals.”

How Can Businesses and Organizations Download RansomFree? 
Businesses and other organizations can download and install RansomFree, in under a minute, at: 
https://ransomfree.cybereason.com. RansomFree stops ransomware from encrypting data on PCs, network shared drives and Windows servers. It is available for PCs running Windows 7, 8 and 10, Windows 2010 R2, and Windows 2008 R2. Support for RansomFree is available in the RansomFree Support Google Group.

There are a number of things small businesses can do to prevent ransomware attacks and limit the damage if they have already been victimized.

Tips for Ransomware Prevention 

• Maintain up to date backups of files and regularly verify that the backups can be restored.
• Ransomware is often delivered through the exact same channels as other types of malware. Sometimes it's even bundled with and downloaded together with other types of malware. Avoid common malware delivery tactics:

o Refrain from downloading pirated software or paid software offered for “free.” 
o Don’t download software from dubious sources you don’t know or recognize. 
o Don't open email attachments and avoid clicking on suspicious links in email and social media messages. 

• Educate your employees about appropriate security behaviors.
• Install an anti-ransomware tool.

Tips if Your Small Business Has Been Hit by Ransomware

• Isolate the affected machine from the network to minimize the encryption of additional files and shared folders on other machines. Also, the presence of a ransomware indicates the attacker potentially has remote access to the compromised machine that can be used to escalate the attack and compromise the entire network. Isolation of the affected machine can prevent that.
• Change passwords - make sure all users change their passwords to corporate and cloud services, especially those used from the affected machine.
• Perform incident investigation, looking for signs of lateral movement of the attacker. In some cases the ransomware is dropped after the attacker achieved other goals in the environment.
• Prevent additional executions of the detected ransomware across the network through end point threat detection and response tools.
• Unfortunately, if your data hasn’t been backed up, you may consider paying the ransom in order to recover the data. Then focus on improving your defenses, to avoid future ransomware attacks.

About Cybereason 
Cybereason is the leader in endpoint protection, offering endpoint detection and response, next-generation antivirus, and managed monitoring services. Founded by elite intelligence professionals born and bred in offense-first hunting, Cybereason gives enterprises the upper hand over cyber adversaries. The Cybereason platform is powered by a custom-built in-memory graph, the only truly automated hunting engine anywhere. It detects behavioral patterns across every endpoint and surfaces malicious operations in an exceptionally user-friendly interface. Cybereason is privately held and headquartered in Boston with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo.

Media Contact: 
Bill Keeler 
Director, Public Relations 
Cybereason 
bill.keeler@cybereason.com 
(929) 259-3261