The latest ransomware victims: The City of West Haven Connecticut and Onslow Water and Sewer Authority. The best defenses are multiple layers of protection, following best practices and end users training. Even with the best defenses having an air-gapped back-up is key to effectively recovering from an attack.

Security experts say that since then end of 2017, the growth in ransomware attacks has stalled. Instead, many criminals have begun focusing on cryptojacking, which involves mining for virtual currencies by stealing CPU power from victims.

Although ransomware attack growth has stalled, it still remains an oft-seen, illicit money-making tactic, and one of the top threats that the FBI says it’s continuing to see. Likewise, the EU’s law enforcement intelligence agency, Europol, says it continues to track extensive ransomware activity (see Cybercrime: 15 Top Threats and Trends).

The best way to deal with a ransomware infection is by preparing properly to safeguard against as well as rapidly recover from such an attack. Organizations that fail to do so face a difficult and expensive cleanup and restoration process.

We also really like the Ransomware Hostage Rescue Checklist from KnowBe4 – you can download it here: https://www.knowbe4.com/hubfs/RansomwareChecklist.pdf