When protecting a business from malware, many organizations only focus on keeping malware out. While this is an important piece of the puzzle, it’s important not to overlook effective detection and response strategies. Taking a holistic approach to malware protection across prevention, detection, and response can streamline malware defense and enhance security.
Here are the leading strategies your business should use when preventing malware from entering your systems and mitigating common cyber threats posed by malicious software.
Updating your legitimate software ensures that your business is on the most recent version of a software package. Developers will issue updates to fix known vulnerabilities and improve the security of their applications and systems.
The MITRE Attack Framework regularly recommends keeping software updated as a leading method of defending against a wide range of cybersecurity threats.
Security software is the architectural foundation upon which all of your defenses against cyber attacks rest. If your business has a wide range of security software that offers a multi-layered defense strategy, you’re able to identify and neutralize potential threats before they enter your organization.
Ensure your business has strong security software across its entire attack surface.
Your business should educate your workforce on the perils that downloading a malicious file or clicking on a phishing link in a phishing email can cause.
If your employees are aware that they should use caution when reading emails from unknown senders, they’re less likely to fall for a phishing or malware scam. A little bit of education can go a long way in preventing the spread of malware.
Browser protection is a traffic monitoring tool that sits within your organization’s devices. When an employee tries to connect to a site with malicious markers, browser protection will block them from doing so.
Browser protection is an additional layer of protection that can stop mistakes like clicking on a malicious link.
Creating regular backups allows your business to restore to previous versions to get rid of malware. Equally, having several secure backup systems means you continue business as normal if you’re in the midst of a ransomware attack.
Regularly backing up your business data is a vital security tool and practice your organization should implement.
Here are a number of effective strategies your business can employ to detect malware as quickly as possible, limiting the damage it can cause to your systems.
Antivirus software can scan through company devices, servers, and networks to look for suspicious activity and threat markers. By detecting these or locating any indicators of compromise, your business can then rapidly mount a cybersecurity defense response.
Conducting regular scans limits the time that malicious software exists in your system, helping to keep your business safe and reduce damages.
When malware compromises business systems, the main threat indicators may be strange behavior from within your system. Certain applications may not function correctly, or devices may begin to slow down.
Monitoring system behavior with malware identification tools will help pinpoint malware on your devices and launch an effective response.
Malware often draws upon system resources to execute certain functions.
For instance, it may use up system resources when rapidly looking through system files in search of valuable or private information. If you notice strange spikes in resource consumption from particular devices, applications, or software in your business network, you may be observing a threat marker that malware is currently active in your organization.
Here are the strategies to help to reduce the impact of malware while streamlining the process of removing malware from your network.
After identifying a malware threat on a device, your first step should always be to isolate the device from your wider network. By segmenting a device, you remove its access to other connected devices in your system, impacting malware’s ability to spread.
Isolated devices make malware much less useful for threat actors. Equally, once malware is contained, it is much easier to remove.
Conducting malware scans on an isolated device will help your security team gather more information about the common types of threat you are dealing with, as several types of malware could enter your system.
Malware scans help identify what form of malware you’re dealing with, which, in turn, helps coordinate the removal process.
One of the most common methods that threat actors use to insert malware into a company’s systems is by accessing an employee account and downloading the files onto their computer. After a malware event has occurred, your business should obligate all employees to change their passwords and make these strong passwords.
If you haven’t already implemented multi-factor authentication, this is a good time to do so.
If your business is ever in doubt about how to remove malware or deal with an emerging threat, reach out to professionals who will be able to:
Breaking the cybersecurity process into these three categories helps businesses better understand where their defenses currently are and how they could improve them. If a company assesses its security architecture and notices that they have lots of response solutions but few ones that aim to mitigate malware, it can add more defenses in this early section.
With Perimeter 81, businesses can excel across all three of these malware prevention areas. Offering a range of tools that help to prevent malware, identify malware, and remove malware infections from business systems, Perimeter 81 is the ultimate security companion that keeps your business safe.
Get started with malware protection from Perimeter 81 by booking a free demo.
