Best Ransomware Protection — Top Software Programs

on February 19, 2020

Did you ever have to pay ransom for your own data locked up on the computer? If not, then you don’t want to be a victim of any ransomware attack in the future. The cybersecurity scenario isn’t getting any better!

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, “ransomware is expected to attack a business every 11 seconds by the end of 2021… Global ransomware damage costs will reach $20 billion by 2021—which is 57X more than it was in 2015. This makes ransomware the fastest growing type of cybercrime.”

Before we evaluate the best ransomware protection program, let’s understand how typical ransomware works.

What Is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malware (more like a subset of malware) that infects the victim’s data through encryption, and a ransom amount is demanded to return access to his/her data. Ransomware attacks a target computer through various sources such as phishing emails, malicious ads, pop-ups, fake software downloads, and more. The hacker, with a motive of extorting money, locks down a user’s system and notifies him about the exploit and how to recover his/her data. Ransomware hackers usually demand payment in Bitcoins, so their identities remain hidden.

Top 4 Best Ransomware Protection Programs

A new security solution or product is introduced in the cybersecurity market every day. Selecting the right tool catered to your enterprise security needs is critical. Let’s look at the top 4 software programs available on the market today with the best ransomware protection and prevention capabilities.

  1. SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
  2. SolarWinds Patch Manager (PM)
  3. Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware
  4. Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor

1. SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

solarwinds security event manager dashboard showing all events activity

SolarWinds erstwhile Log & Event Manager is now known as SolarWinds Security Event Manager. It acts as a reliable security information and event management solution offering robust intelligence against potential cyberthreats to safeguard your business from security breaches and malicious attacks.

This affordable security solution helps detect and respond to suspicious activities in real-time. Using its pre-built connectors, your security teams can easily collect and retain logs from multiple sources into one central location to better analyze the potential threats, proactively prevent attacks, and be ready for compliance audits. Smart visualizations, out-of-the-box filters, and simple, responsive text-based searching pull out accurate results of the logs you need.

SEM has integrated threat intelligence acting as a security operations center. It identifies bad actors and alerts you about suspicious behaviors using built-in event correlation rules. Today’s emerging threats and malware are fast enough to infiltrate the system and data within a blink of an eye. A security solution must be quick enough to mitigate those risks beforehand. SEM’s automated threat response allows you to automate security responses such as IP blocking, account disabling, shutting down systems or applications, and more by setting up specific correlation rules. These rules, when triggered automatically, act against unusual events.

Security Event Manager’s other core capabilities include:

  • Out-of-the-box compliance reporting tools and templates
  • Built-in file integrity monitoring
  • USB device monitoring and policy enforcement
  • Easy log sharing and exporting

To secure critical data and systems from ransomware, implementing Security Event Manager (SEM) from SolarWinds is a smart move. For more information about the product, visit here.

2. SolarWinds Patch Manager

solarwinds patch manager's update management wizard

SolarWinds offers another security product, Patch Manager, for proactively identifying and addressing software vulnerabilities through the latest patch management capabilities. Patch Manager helps manage, discover, diagnose, and fix Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) patches across all your Microsoft products and applications using Windows Update Agent (WUA). The patch status dashboard gives a detailed view of the patch status and allows you to report on the vulnerabilities of third-party software products. It also allows you to see all the latest patches available, top 10 missing or uninstalled patches, and overall health of the environment.

SolarWinds Patch Manager enables you to automate the patching system and report generation for achieving patch compliance before security audits and internal reviews. This not only saves the manual efforts, but also simplifies the entire patch management across PCs, servers, and workstations. The patch and vulnerability management software extends WSUS capabilities and enables you to minimize potential security risks and service by ensuring patches are applied. Besides, you have complete control over all the patches—what application or software needs patching, in which system or device, and when.

Therefore, you can always stay up to date with the latest security and anti-ransomware patches for third-party software installed in laptops, desktops, VMs, servers, and Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) managed endpoints. For a simplified and automated patch management, start your free trial today.

3. Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware

bitdefender anti ransomware protection

A zero-day vulnerability is an unpatched software flaw allowing a ransomware writer to exploit and tap down systems using exploit kits easily. Bitdefender facilitates advanced and layered protection against such vulnerabilities. Its security layers centrally focus on attack techniques, detect security loopholes, and remediate running and infected configurations.

It keeps an eye on the ongoing processes in the system such as registry key modification, file read/write, or any suspicious encryption action and immediately terminates ransomware manifestations. As a flexible preventive system, Bitdefender successfully roots out malicious cyber activity, efficiently rolls back the changes, and wipes out the unwanted flaws caused. Explore more about Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware here.

4. Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor

tend micro ransomware file decryptor

Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor tool comes in handy when you have to decrypt certain file types locked down by ransomware writers (through encryption). The tool decrypts and releases the files encrypted by 27 variants of ransomware families. However, Trend Micro Ransomware File Decryptor is programmed to decrypt only known ransomware encryptions. Hence, it’s useful in releasing data files infected by a specific ransomware family. To unlock unknown or new ransomware-attacked files, you’ll need a more advanced enterprise security solution like Security Event Manager or Patch Manager.

To learn more about the product, visit this page. As ransomware families continue to scale up and become more sophisticated, carrying out a detailed security assessment of your infrastructure is critical. Patching and preventing vulnerabilities by implementing enterprise-grade security solutions should be the prime focus. You must analyze your threat landscape to get an in-depth understanding of how to best safeguard the entire organization from emerging ransomware kits.

If you’re a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and are facing a rise in ransomware attacks, there’s another solution that’s perfectly suited for your needs. Mail Assure is a suite of cloud-based security tools created with MSPs in mind. It can help you provide email protection for your clients, without the usual hassle.

This solution provides advanced threat protection for both inbound and outbound emails, protecting against malicious messages from all angles. Plus, it comes with other handy time-saving features, such as long-term encrypted email storage and built-in email continuity.

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