industryopinion
How can the channel take its place in the fight against ransomware?
David Ellis, Vice President, Security and Mobility Solutions, Tech Data EMEA considers prioritising people and policies as a route to effective responses against critical ransomware attacks and the benefits of intra-organisational collaboration, including appropriate training to avoid easy mistakes that are far too common.
R
ansomware is not a new problem, but the veracity of the attacks being seen today is taking it to a different level of sophistication. Te move to remote working
has created more opportunities for cyber criminals, whilst the ransomware business models that have been developed and information sharing on the dark web have accelerated the ability of many to conduct highly sophisticated attacks. For organisations of all descriptions, this has created a major headache, which the channel finds itself tasked with curing for customers.
“If the human
Focus on people and policies Given the tried-and-true methods that most attackers use to break into an organisation’s systems, those in cybersecurity need to ask why the calls to implement basic cybersecurity hygiene are not getting through. Incredibly, the number one route into an organisation is still email. Clearly talk about the need for more cyber awareness training is not translating into the proper implementation of such schemes. What makes this even more pressing is that some ransomware
link is the weakest
in the chain, that is surely the one that needs addressing first?”
Working out the weaknesses From a technology standpoint, it is reasonably easy for channel partners to define whether their customers have the right systems and processes in place. Vulnerability scans and penetration testing can identify technological issues that need to be addressed. How oſten these tests should be conducted will depend on how regularly the IT environment of the organisation in question changes. A cloud-based developer, for example, is constantly updating their environment and so needs to be checking far more regularly that everything is properly configured and secure. In terms of choosing which technologies
to use, most organisations are looking to implement a multi-layered, multi-vendor approach to meet the specific needs of their organisation. Navigating the complexity of selecting and integrating multiple products to create the best overall solution is one of the key challenges organisations are turning to the channel to
gangs are already moving to more sophisticated phishing techniques, such as social engineering using social media and professional networks. Te idea of putting training in place and then regularly testing employees is not new or revolutionary, but too few organisations are carrying it out. Te channel should be helping their customers to design and conduct appropriate training for their employees as a priority. If the human link is the weakest in the chain, that is surely the one that needs addressing first?
Working across the business A ransomware attack affects the entire business. As a result, channel partners must work with their customers to ensure that a playbook is in place that sets out what happens in the event of an attack. Encouraging this kind of intra-organisational collaboration and helping to design and implement an effective response to an attack is a real value add for channel partners, shows considerable specialism, and will help bring them much closer to their customers business and its unique challenges.
18 | February 2022
solve. With the increasing number of threats and attack vectors, and the corresponding increase in solutions to match them, this is not set to change. Partners have to work with vendors and solutions aggregators to keep their training up to date and market knowledge relevant.
Scaling your ransomware offering For partners, entering the security market and helping their partners address the ransomware issue is no small task. However, to close the security gap that exists across many organisations we need more people across the channel who can help organisations address these challenges. As partners start out on their security journey one option is to leverage click-to-run solutions to enter the market whilst they further develop their own skills and offering. With the ability to customise each of the ready built solutions to the requirements of an organisation’s IT environment, using these solutions can reduce the time needed to build and configure a ransomware solution from 10 hours to between 30 minutes and one hour. In the process, partners can expect to significantly reduce their own operating costs when implementing these solutions, vastly decreasing the time in which their cybersecurity business becomes viable.
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