Expert Comment: Macmillan systems offline due to Ransomware Attack
June 2022 by Dr Darren Williams, CEO and Founder of Blackfog
As major publisher Macmillan announces it’s taken systems have been
taken offline due to a ransomware attack, the expert comment
from Dr Darren Williams, CEO at Blackfog, who notes that
organisations must look to modern techniques that prevent exfiltration
of data from the device in order to stop attackers in their tracks,
rather than traditional, time-consuming and cumbersome approaches…
_"Taking systems offline post attack is a reassuring and necessary
response to a ransomware attack such as this one against Macmillan, but
as ever, prevention is better than cure. _
_Organisations need effective, modern protective security measures in
place to prevent attacks. A common challenge with traditional defensive
approaches to cybersecurity is that they require too much time to
adequately protect organisations from these types of attacks, and often
lead to a reliance on post-attack measures such as taking systems
offline._
_Instead of waiting for an attack to happen and then responding,
organisations should be focussed on newer technologies that prevent the
exfiltration of data from the device, effectively stopping the attacker
in their tracks. By looking at the mechanism of action across various
ransomware gangs it is possible to stop these attacks at many stages of
the attack life cycle and prevent a full-blown incident such as the one
against Macmillan."_