In addition to the lives at risk when patient data is down, according to Gartner, the average cost of enterprise network downtime is $5,600 per minute, which equals more than $300,000 per hour. For many organizations, an unexpected cost of $300,000 per hour (for an undetermined amount of time) can cripple operations. Addressing a business’s digital health ahead of an attack can help minimize, and in some cases, prevent downtime all together.

Planning for the inevitable
There are three proactive measures companies must follow to prepare for and defend against ransomware: education, implementation of antivirus software and adoption of total data protection tools.

Education
The first layer of defense is educating employees on what ransomware is and what to expect from an attack. A ransomware prevention program can educate individuals about the dangers of social engineering, phishing campaigns, and best practices for determining whether or not to open an email attachment. Organizations need to teach their employees how to spot anomalies in their networks and best practices for how to respond. That said, even the most educated people are not immune to human error and education on its own is not an adequate solution.

Antivirus
The second layer of ransomware defense is antivirus protection. If a malicious link or attachment is clicked or downloaded, antivirus will often save a system from a full-blown infection. Antiviruses are imperative but not invincible, as new strains of ransomware are being created at a rate higher than the antivirus solutions to protect against them. This makes it crucial for organizations to understand where vulnerabilities exist within the systems and networks in order to keep pace with the speed at which cybercriminals are working.

Total data protection
What most people do not realize is that ransomware can lay dormant in a system for long periods of time until it is activated. Therefore, a data protection solution is the ultimate fail-safe in a layered defense strategy. It takes snapshots of the data and systems and stores them in a secure location. If you fall victim to ransomware, you can simply "turn back the clock" to a snapshot before the infection occurred.

Depending on the size and skills of the IT team, outsourcing business continuity to ensure "turning back the clock" is effective can free up employees to focus on business activities. Healthcare organizations can empower managed service providers (MSPs) to oversee an organization’s cyber protection and backup operations, helping to minimize cyber threats.

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