The modus operandi of ransomware campaigns makes the banking industry one of its most obvious and frequent victims. According to Verizon’s recent report, Banks are a top target for ransomware campaigns. Small banks are particularly susceptible to these attacks due to their out-dated IT infrastructure.
One of the most common banking ransomware is Battling Ransomware. This ransomware completely shuts down a bank’s operations by freezing all the computers and networks. The ransomware then proceeds towards asking for ransom. Many banks are forced to pay in order to resume their operations and avoid losses.
One such bank is Adams Bank & Trust of Ogallala, Neb which has been a frequent target of ransomware attacks. According to the bank’s network administrator Jason Glazebrook, smaller banks have to constantly deal with these attacks and remove ransomware.
When Mr. Jason joined the bank, he found out that the bank was using old technologies and out-dated software. He was shocked because he found the system defenceless in case of a ransomware attack and that the entire data of the clients was exposed to dangerous parties. Moreover, after each ransomware attack, the IT team needed at least a day to recover the data and remove ransomware utilities. Thus, the banking operations were hit hard and often some data was lost in the ransomware attack.
In order to remove ransomware from their systems, banks have begun to spend significant amounts of money on their IT security as well as increase the number of cyber officials in their organizations. Adams Bank also followed and has acquired the services of an IT firm Zerto. Zerto has incorporated a certain technology in Adams Bank that can notify the system instantly as soon as a ransomware attacks the system. Moreover, the technology saves both time and loss of data by restoring the system’s previous state in 60 minutes.
According to Zerto’s technology expert Gijsbert Janssen Van Doorn, banks need to revolutionize their IT infrastructure. They need to adopt IT resilience strategies that can not only save them from ransomware removal incidents, but also help in recovery and backup of data.
