Why is the White House Urging businesses to step up ransomware defenses?

The current Biden administration is pulling forces together from their recent White House memo to take “immediate steps” in increasing ransomware defenses, in response to the recent high-profile cyber attacks. The memo directly states “The number and size of ransomware incidents have increased significantly... ” and that “... companies that view ransomware as a threat to their core business operations rather than a simple risk of data theft will react and recover more effectively.”

The summary provided below comes from an AXIOS article that originally sourced the memo.

The Answer:

The recent attacks include (among many):
- May's Colonial Pipeline hack, the largest refined products pipeline network in the

country, forcing them to shut down, halting fuel deliveries along the east coast for days.

- The company paid the criminal hacking group $4.4 million to retrieve access back to their computers.

- The Russia-linked ransomware group who forced american based JBS beef plants to shut down temporarily this last week.

“... companies that view ransomware as a threat to their core business operations rather than a simple risk of data theft will react and recover more effectively.”

Here are the steps for creating a more secure cyber environment directly from the White House:

1. Implement the five best practices from the President’s executive Order

   Four are outlined within the memo:

   1. Multifactor Authentication

   2. Endpoint detection & response

   3. Encryption

   4. Skilled security team

2. Backup your data, system images, and configurations, regularly test them, and keep the backups offline.

3. Update and patch systems promptly.

4. Test your incident response plan
a. Using the following questions:

1. Are you able to sustain business operations without access to certain systems?

2. For how long?

3. Would you turn off your manufacturing operations if business systems

   such as billing were online?

1. Check Your Security Team’s Work

2. Segment your Networks

a. With a new threat to systems of functioning instead of simply data, it is important

to keep functions and manufacturing/production operations separated to carefully filter with internet access.

And lastly of course we offer these services here at Mi-Token and follow the guidelines of the White House and other up to date industry standards that make Mi-Token stand out amongst cybersecurity companies around the world.