Ransomware attacks have increased in frequency and severity in the past few years as cybercriminals have become bolder and more advanced. In line with this, their demands have also risen steadily year after year. In parallel, cyber insurance costs have climbed significantly – and insurers have also upped their list of demands for those they insure.

Faced with a ransom demand and the threat of confidential data being posted online or sold to other parties, it’s no wonder that legal professionals are tempted to pay the fee and move on, hoping they are never put in such an unenviable position again. However, once inside IT networks, cybercriminals can dwell for months and strike again unless appropriate action is taken to evict them.

One incident, multiple costs

On the face of it, the ransom amount – which varies enormously depending on multiple factors including the type and volume of data stolen – is expensive enough. However, any ransomware attack can result in several ‘hidden’ costs, including:

  • business disruption due to any IT systems being out of action;
  • getting technology up and running again (which could take days or weeks);
  • loss of billable time to clients;
  • potential loss of clients;
  • defending lawsuits from clients if their data is leaked; and
  • financial penalties from industry regulators.

It’s soon apparent that there’s much more to lose than just client data, and costs can rack up well above the ransom fee. In fact, it’s estimated that the ransom fee is only 15% of the total expense of the ransomware attack and such an attack occurs somewhere in the world every 3 hours and 15 minutes. Although these numbers might seem shocking, everyone can prepare properly to greatly reduce the chances of being compromised.

Helping good people win before, during and after a security incident

With experience helping over 150 organisations of any size and complexity prevent or respond to cyber incidents, Quorum Cyber has a range of services to defend you from known, emerging and unknown cyber threats. Our Incident Response team is always on standby, day and night, to respond to any urgent requests.

While recovering from a breach, we can place you under the protection of our Security Operations Centre (SOC) to move you to a safer position and prevent further attacks. This should give you some much-needed rest during what’s obviously a stressful and tiring time, and give you some peace of mind that a second attack won’t make the situation worse.

Prevention is always better than a cure, of course. This is why we highly recommend our Microsoft Sentinel Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service, which already safeguards many organisations around the world, around the clock. Operated by experts equipped with Microsoft’s market-leading security technologies, they monitor your whole environment, detect any potential threats and respond rapidly.

With our new premium service, Managed Extended Detection & Response (XDR), we provide comprehensive security across your entire IT estate, combining the strengths of Microsoft’s two families of Defenders – Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Defender for Cloud – plus Microsoft Sentinel into one single service. ​Our qualified team of professionals will protect everything in your ecosystem, from Operational Technology (OT) to the Internet of Things (IoT), to email, identities, databases, networks, firewalls, virtual machines and all cloud-based services including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure. Managed XDR includes the MDR service as standard.

Reduce your risk and protect your reputation

Whatever your firm’s risk appetite and wherever it is on its security journey, we can help you significantly reduce the risk of experiencing a ransomware attack and the associated costs. Explore how our services can help you before, during and after a security incident on www.quorumcyber.com, or contact us at info@quorumcyber.com if you have any questions.

For more information, visit www.quorumcyber.com or email: info@quorumcyber.com