Why is Ransomware so prevalent? Why are so many getting caught in its net? And what are some of the best tactics to stop its scourge?

Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week’s episode co-hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), the creator of CISO Series and Allan Alford (@AllanAlfordinTX). Our sponsored guest for this episode is Brian Vecci (@BrianTheVecci), field CTO, Varonis.

Got feedback? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Varonis

The most powerful way to find, protect, and monitor sensitive data at scale. Get total control over your unstructured data in the cloud and on-premises. See it in action in a live cyberattack simulation lab.

On this episode of Defense in Depth, you’ll learn:

The ability to exploit the stealing of data takes work. Ransomware requires no knowledge.

Ransomware targets the lowest common denominator, just data in general. The attackers often don’t need to know much about the data.

Ransomware is extremely dangerous when it goes after shared data which probably isn’t being monitored.

The more savvy ransomware criminals can live dormant in a system, learn where the most valuable data is, and be able to know how much a company can pay.

The solution to fighting back requires one to understand that ransomware targets people and files. It’s the combination of the two that makes ransomware particularly dangerous. Your best bet to mitigate ransomware’s damage is to limit users’ file access. Not all users need to be able to access everything at all times.

Many security professionals believe the solution to ransomware is just good security hygiene and patching. While patching does narrow your attack surface, it doesn’t make you immune to ransomware.

Unlike most cybercrime, ransomware is noisy. The attackers want you to know that they’re there so you’ll pay up.

Creative Commons photo attribution with logo addition to Flickr user Sheila Sund.