Everyday we see another story about an organization whose data is being held for ransom by bad actors. Usually all it takes is for someone to click on an attachment without thinking to install ransomware. Maybe they “found” a USB thumb-drive at their local Starbucks and thought hey it's my lucky day. There are not only attacks coming from without your organization, but also from within. A disgruntled employee maybe trying to get back at her boss, or maybe she is trying to right some perceived wrong by attacking your company. It could also be as simple as a user without thinking, clicked on what looked like a valid link or file. No matter the vector the attacks take, you need to do everything you can to be prepared so your data isn’t locked up.
A layered approach to security is the best way to reduce the likely hood of one of these attacks being successful. There are many paths you can take to escape the binds of ransomware. Today I would like to discuss how KACE can be a part of that layered defense.
First you need to know what you have to begin protecting our data. And once you know what software and devices are deployed you can protect them. The KACE Systems Management Appliance can discover and inventory devices on your network. Not only traditional devices, but also mobile devices, non computing devices such as printers, routers, and switches. KACE Systems Management Appliance can also manage other operating systems such as Unix, Linux, and Mac. Once these devices are managed by KACE you can keep them patched and up to date. Devices can also be equipped with company approved software automatically to ensure a manageable environment. Once your actively managing the devices you can easily report on those devices. Knowing which devices are out of compliance will help you keep on top of minimizing your exposure to threats.
Another layer of defense is to remove users from the local administrator group on their machines. This allows Windows User Access Control (UAC) to work as designed, instead of just being a bother.You don’t want to eliminate a threat though and open the flood gates of user complaints about not being able to install needed software or drivers. With KACE Privilege Manager this will not be a problem. You can discover trusted applications with ease and create rules to allow approved software to run with elevated permissions. Not only can you allow certain software or vendor titles to run pre-approved you can also blacklist unwanted software. You can say goodbye to common applications that you don’t want on running on your network. KACE Privilege Manager adds another level of protection to those who may accidentally click on the wrong thing.
Ransomware is just one of the many threats out there with even more on the horizon. With Unified Endpoint Management and a Least Privilege Environment with KACE you can reduce the likelihood of your data being locked up by those threats.
