Ransomware Defense and Removal Solutions for Healthcare Practices

Ransomware is one of the most critical threats to any enterprise, but healthcare is a particularly popular target. Mainstream media reports on ransomware hitting large hospitals and small practices on an alarmingly common basis.

While the attacks these entities face are the ones that make the headlines, the fact is every business is at risk no matter the industry or size of the organization.

Scarlett Cybersecurity provides a solid frontline that defends against ransomware while offering rapid business continuity solutions for a rainy day.

What is Ransomware?

The technical details of ransomware can change depending on the strain, but they mostly follow the same general methodology. The attackers will commonly get a foothold within the environment via phishing or by utilizing an exploit.

Once inside the network, the malware will generally propagate rapidly to as many systems as possible by acting as a network worm. This is not a manual process and the ransomware will use cutting-edge techniques that are nearly impossible to defend against without up-to-date systems and security measures.

The machines or data infected will then be “locked” until a ransom is paid. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that paying the ransom will get the data back. The insidious nature of ransomware allows it to infect data backups as well if not properly segmented.

The reality is that many times there is no other choice but to roll the dice if proper measures were not in place.

Ransomware's Effects on Unprepared Medical Organizations

The timeline of a normal ransomware attack looks something like this:

1. A user receives an email containing the initial payload and patient zero is established.
    
2. The ransomware spreads freely through the under-secured and unpatched network, possibly remaining silent until fully propagated.
    
3. All the systems that were vulnerable are locked in some way. Often the ransomware will encrypt the files on the device in a manner that is not recoverable unless the ransom is paid.
    
4. During this period, it is highly likely that the entire organization will come to a grinding halt. The healthcare organization will likely lose all avenues of continuity and a complete remediation effort will be necessary.
    
5. Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations do not use backups properly and these backups can take a long time to deploy, leaving a critical gap in business operations. A common scenario is that the backups themselves are infected, leading to a total loss of data and operations.
6. At this point the unprepared medical organization has a few options, none of which are ideal.
   • Pay the ransom and hope that the adversary is honest, a risky and expensive prospect. The worst case with this option is the scenario when the original authors of the ransomware strain are now defunct. This can lead to a situation where there is nobody on the other end to receive your payment, so no key will be provided.
      
   • Attempt to decrypt the data, but this is highly unlikely and will waste valuable time while infrequently yielding results and likely costing a fortune for the reverse engineering talent required.
      
   • Completely rebuild the systems without using backups, potentially losing invaluable data and time but circumventing the expensive ransom.

How We Help

Just like a disease, the single best counter to ransomware is inoculation. Here at Scarlett Cybersecurity, our Complete Managed IT Solutions can drastically increase your organization’s chance of unimpeded operations.

Many of our offerings specifically defend against the most threatening malware while simultaneously preventing other issues within the network from crippling your revenue stream. Unsure if you are prepared? Consider our Comprehensive IT Assessment to ensure that your healthcare organization is ready for anything.

Security:
Scarlett Cybersecurity offers comprehensive security packages for those that are concerned that ransomware may be a threat. The most secure corporations utilize a SIEM/SOC solution to monitor logs for real-time threats. Scarlett Cybersecurity offers these services along with a comprehensive AV solution that can help prevent the spread of ransomware. Our services even include dedicated anti-ransomware tools that can stop the encryption as soon as it’s detected. 

Awareness:
The ugly truth is that users are the weak point of any security stack. People will find a way to click a bad link regardless of news headlines warning against it. The only real solution to user (mis)behavior is real-world experience. We utilize tools that simulate real attacks and generate easy-to-read reports showing the threat presented by the users. These users are then presented with a thorough, interactive training session that has been proven to significantly improve the security posture of the organization.

Patching:
Scarlett Cybersecurity prides itself on a robust patch management system that will act as an excellent defense against the cutting-edge techniques used by malware authors. It’s no secret that ransomware’s spread is countered in many cases by patched devices, and our MSP services will keep the entire network up to date to prevent the most common forms of malware propagation.
 

What should a victim do?   

Unfortunately, there is no substitute for preparation. There are thorough remediation techniques that may allow us to recover your data and have you up-and-running as fast as possible while removing the ransomware from the environment.

The bad news is that we may not be able to guarantee the full recovery of the data if your network hasn’t been hardened using our services. Be wary of any companies that claim guaranteed decryption. The encryption algorithms used by most ransomware authors are specifically engineered to be non-reversable. If entire cities cannot decrypt their data, it is highly unlikely that any vendor has the resources to reverse-engineer the encryption algorithm.

Scarlett Cybersecurity will ensure that your company has all the resources needed to recover from an attack and will handle remediation if the unthinkable happens.

Incident Prevention Services

Prevent cybersecurity incidents by working with Scarlett Cybersecurity. We provide a robust array of cybersecurity services ranging from cybersecurity consulting to full defense-in-depth security services. Scarlett Cybersecurity uses the latest tools and techniques to help secure your organization.

Our unique focus on transparency enables us to form close relationships with our clients and provide incident prevention services that emphasize effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

Incident Detection Services

Detecting a cybersecurity incident can be a difficult task. Partner with Scarlett Cybersecurity to ensure all threats are detected and eradicated before they cause irreparable harm to your organization.

Incident Response Services

Whether your organization is the victim of an attack or you just want to be prepared, working with Scarlett Cybersecurity can ensure that you will be able to recover quickly should an attack happen.

Consultation Services

Scarlett Cybersecurity’s Consulting Team is led by ISACA Certified Auditors. These services provide information to clients as a trusted partner. Specific services are offered to assist in the realization of large projects. We are highly specialized in “Virtual CIO” services, Cloud Strategy, and IT Governance consultation.

IT Audit Services

Scarlett Cybersecurity was founded and built by certified Information Technology Auditors. The assessments listed below are commonly used to provide objective metrics and gain insight into the current network posture. Our assessments can be utilized as a standalone deliverable or as a precursor to more significant projects.