InfoSec 2016: Businesses, Beware The Ransomware Threat, Says Rik Ferguson

British businesses need to boost their cyber-security protection to deal with the growing ransomware threats that are increasingly targeting companies around the world, a leading security researcher has said.

Speaking to TechWeekEurope at the InfoSecurity Europe 2016 event in London this week, Rik Ferguson, vice president of security research at Trend Micro, warned that ransomware is becoming “a much more pernicious threat” for businesses today.

“It’s obviously something that has been around for a very long time from a consumer perspective, but now there’s real strong evidence that attackers are developing techniques which are designed specifically to go after enterprise environments,” he said.

“If ransomware gets into your business environment, obviously you’re going to suffer from downtime, you’re going to have no access to data, you’ll have brand damage, and potentially, it’s going to cost you a lot of money to recover from, if you’re not set up correctly in the first place.”

Aware

However, Ferguson was also keen to point out that ransomware was still a threat for everyday consumers too.

“From a consumer perspective, it’s about being aware that your data has value – that you are a legitimate target, and that there are some very simple, cost-free things that you can do to protect yourself” – keeping systems up to date, running reputable security software which is updated, and being “a bit more cynical” about what is sent to you, whether its IM, social media, or email!

“For too long, we’ve considered security technology in isolation – looking at individual systems – and you only really get less than half of the picture if all you’re looking at is an individual console or several consoles – context is key for effective security.”

For more from Rik, check out the full video below: