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src="https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Category-Icon-Products-Services@2x_r2.min_.png" alt="Products and Services" /> <span class="font-sansSemiBold lg:text-base lg:leading-tight text-2xs absolute bottom-0 p-4 font-semibold leading-tight text-center text-white"> PRODUCTS & SERVICES </span> </div> </div> </div> <header> <div class="container mt-8 md:mt-16 md:-mb-4"> <div class="max-w-4xl mx-auto"> <h1 class="text-style-h1 mb-8">Report: Endpoint Protection Best Practices to Block Ransomware</h1> <div class="text-xl md:text-2xl -mt-2 mb-6"> Maximize the effectiveness of your anti-ransomware defenses with these seven endpoint protection best practices. </div> <div class="text-xl md:text-xl -mt-2"> <span class="byline"> Written by <span class="author vcard"> <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/author/rajan-sanhotra/" title="Posts by Rajan Sanhotra" class="author url fn" rel="author">Rajan Sanhotra</a> </span> </span> </div> <div class="text-sophos-gray-600 mt-4 text-xs font-sansSemiBold font-semibold leading-tight uppercase"> <span class="posted-on"><a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2020/08/10/endpoint-protection-best-practices-to-block-ransomware/" rel="bookmark">August 10, 2020</a></span> </div> <div class="mt-6 space-y-2 space-x-1"> <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/category/products-services/malware/" class="category-tag-pill">Malware</a> <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/tag/ransomware/" class="category-tag-pill">Ransomware</a> <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/tag/endpoint/" class="category-tag-pill">Endpoint</a> <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/tag/intercept-x/" class="category-tag-pill">Intercept X</a> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="container md:my-16 xl:my-24 my-8"> <div class="entry-content lg:prose-lg mx-auto prose max-w-4xl"> <figure id="attachment_68537" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-68537" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/security-news-trends/whitepapers/gated-wp/sophos-endpoint-protection-best-practices.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-68537 size-medium" src="https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Best-Practices-Ransomware-Report.png?w=224" alt="Best Practices Ransomware Report" width="224" height="300" srcset="https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Best-Practices-Ransomware-Report.png 790w, https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Best-Practices-Ransomware-Report.png?resize=224,300 224w, https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Best-Practices-Ransomware-Report.png?resize=768,1028 768w, https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Best-Practices-Ransomware-Report.png?resize=765,1024 765w" sizes="(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-68537" class="wp-caption-text">Read the report today!</figcaption></figure> <p>In our <a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2020/05/12/the-state-of-ransomware-2020/">recent survey of 5,000 IT Managers across 26 countries</a>, 51% of respondents revealed that they were hit by ransomware in the last year. In 73% of those incidents, attackers succeeded in encrypting data. Furthermore, the average global cost to remediate these attacks was an eye-watering $761,106.</p> <p>An endpoint protection solution is one of the most effective methods to protect against ransomware – but only if it’s properly configured.</p> <p>Our new guide, <a href="https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/security-news-trends/whitepapers/gated-wp/sophos-endpoint-protection-best-practices.aspx">Endpoint Protection Best Practices to Block Ransomware</a>, explores how ransomware attacks work, how they can be stopped, and best practices for configuring your endpoint solution for the strongest protection possible.</p> <h2>Seven endpoint protection best practices to block ransomware</h2> <p>To maximize the effectiveness of your anti-ransomware defenses, we recommend:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Turning on all policies and ensuring all features are enabled</strong>. It sounds obvious, but this is a surefire way that you’ll get the best protection out of your endpoint solution. Be sure to enable features that detect file-less attack techniques and ransomware behavior.</li> <li><strong>Regularly reviewing your exclusions.</strong> Exclusions are sometimes leveraged to soften complaints from users who feel your protection solution is slowing down their systems. Malware that manages to make its way into excluded directories will likely succeed because it’s excluded from being checked.</li> <li><strong>Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) within your security console.</strong> MFA provides an additional layer of security after the first factor, which is often a password.</li> <li><strong>Ensuring every endpoint is protected and up to date.</strong> Checking your devices regularly to know if they’re protected and up to date is a quick way to ensure optimum protection.</li> <li><strong>Maintaining good IT hygiene. </strong>Not only does this mitigate your cybersecurity risk, but it can save you a lot of time when it comes to remediating potential incidents in the future.</li> <li><strong>Hunting for active adversaries on your network. </strong>Malicious actors are more cunning than ever. Take advantage of endpoint detection and response (EDR) technologies in your endpoint solution to identify advanced threats and active adversaries, and take swift action to stop threats.</li> <li><strong>Closing the gap with human intervention. </strong>Hackers typically spend time exploring your network before deploying ransomware. The best way to detect this malicious activity is to combine human expertise with advanced endpoint technology.</li> </ol> <p>These best practices and more are covered in greater detail our new <a href="https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/security-news-trends/whitepapers/gated-wp/sophos-endpoint-protection-best-practices.aspx">Endpoint Protection Best Practices to Block Ransomware </a>whitepaper.</p> <h2>How Sophos keeps you protected from ransomware</h2> <p><a href="https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/endpoint-antivirus.aspx">Sophos Intercept X</a> includes all the features you need to help protect your organization from advanced ransomware attacks like Ryuk, Sodinokibi, Maze, and Ragnar Locker.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Deep learning</strong> identifies and blocks known and unknown ransomware variants</li> <li><strong>Anti-exploit</strong> technology stops the delivery and installation of ransomware</li> <li><strong>CryptoGuard</strong> identifies and rolls back the unauthorized encryption of files</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/endpoint-antivirus/edr.aspx">Sophos EDR</a>, available for endpoints and servers, lets you hunt for threats and maintain good IT operations hygiene across your entire estate.</p> <p>If you want to add human expertise to your layered security strategy, <a href="https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/managed-threat-response.aspx">Sophos Managed Threat Response (MTR)</a> proactively hunts for and neutralizes threats on your behalf.</p> <div> <p style="background-color: #4080c0; 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His wealth of content marketing experience enables Rajan to turn highly technical content into easily accessible material.</p> </div>  </div> </div> </div>  </div> </div> </div> <div class="pb-24 bg-white"> <div class="container"> <div class="max-w-5xl mx-auto"> <h3 class="text-style-h2 md:my-8 my-4"> Read Similar Articles </h3> <div class="article-grid article-grid--3-column">  <article id="post-75410" class="hover:shadow-lg dark:bg-sophos-gray-900 border-sophos-gray-200 flex flex-col overflow-hidden text-gray-700 transition-all bg-white border rounded-md shadow-md post-75410 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-security-operations tag-encryption tag-mtr tag-ransomware tag-security tag-sidebar tag-sophos-rapid-response region-en-us">  <a class="aspect-w-16 aspect-h-9 flex block bg-gray-400 bg-right bg-no-repeat bg-cover" href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/24/what-to-expect-when-youve-been-hit-with-avaddon-ransomware/" rel="bookmark" style=" background-image: url('https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/sophos-ransomware-web-banner-1200x628px-option-2.png?w=640'); " ></a>  <div class="flex flex-col justify-between flex-grow">  <div class="sm:px-8 sm:py-8 p-4 py-6">  <div class="text-sophos-blue-600 font-sansMedium mb-2 text-xs leading-tight uppercase truncate" > May 24, 2021 </div>  <h2 class="text-style-h2 line-clamp-3 sm:mb-4 sm:text-2xl sm:leading-snug text-lg leading-tight text-gray-700"><a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/24/what-to-expect-when-youve-been-hit-with-avaddon-ransomware/" rel="bookmark" class="dark:text-white font-sansSemiBold font-semibold text-gray-900 no-underline cursor-pointer">What to expect when you’ve been hit with Avaddon ransomware</a></h2>  </div> </div> </article>  <article id="post-75301" class="hover:shadow-lg dark:bg-sophos-gray-900 border-sophos-gray-200 flex flex-col overflow-hidden text-gray-700 transition-all bg-white border rounded-md shadow-md post-75301 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-products-services tag-intercept-x tag-sidebar tag-sophos-edr tag-sophos-xdr region-en-us">  <a class="aspect-w-16 aspect-h-9 flex block bg-gray-400 bg-right bg-no-repeat bg-cover" href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/19/whats-new-in-sophos-edr-4-0/" rel="bookmark" style=" background-image: url('https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/sophos-edr-news-blog-image-838x440px@2x.png?w=640'); " ></a>  <div class="flex flex-col justify-between flex-grow">  <div class="sm:px-8 sm:py-8 p-4 py-6">  <div class="text-sophos-blue-600 font-sansMedium mb-2 text-xs leading-tight uppercase truncate" > May 19, 2021 </div>  <h2 class="text-style-h2 line-clamp-3 sm:mb-4 sm:text-2xl sm:leading-snug text-lg leading-tight text-gray-700"><a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/19/whats-new-in-sophos-edr-4-0/" rel="bookmark" class="dark:text-white font-sansSemiBold font-semibold text-gray-900 no-underline cursor-pointer">What’s New in Sophos EDR 4.0</a></h2>  </div> </div> </article>  <article id="post-75396" class="hover:shadow-lg dark:bg-sophos-gray-900 border-sophos-gray-200 flex flex-col overflow-hidden text-gray-700 transition-all bg-white border rounded-md shadow-md post-75396 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-products-services tag-sidebar tag-sophos-xdr tag-xdr region-en-us">  <a class="aspect-w-16 aspect-h-9 flex block bg-gray-400 bg-right bg-no-repeat bg-cover" href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/19/sophos-xdr-driven-by-data/" rel="bookmark" style=" background-image: url('https://news.sophos.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/sophos-xdr.png?w=640'); " ></a>  <div class="flex flex-col justify-between flex-grow">  <div class="sm:px-8 sm:py-8 p-4 py-6">  <div class="text-sophos-blue-600 font-sansMedium mb-2 text-xs leading-tight uppercase truncate" > May 19, 2021 </div>  <h2 class="text-style-h2 line-clamp-3 sm:mb-4 sm:text-2xl sm:leading-snug text-lg leading-tight text-gray-700"><a href="https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/05/19/sophos-xdr-driven-by-data/" rel="bookmark" class="dark:text-white font-sansSemiBold font-semibold text-gray-900 no-underline cursor-pointer">Sophos XDR: Driven by data</a></h2>  </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </main> </div> </div>  <div class="bg-sophos-gray-50 md:py-16 px-4 pb-4 pt-8"> <div class="container max-w-2xl" x-show="!subscribed"> <div class="text-style-h2-lg"> Subscribe to get the latest updates in your inbox. </div> <div id="mc_embed_shell"> <link href="//cdn-images.mailchimp.com/embedcode/classic-061523.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <style type="text/css"> /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. 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