AWS Public Sector Blog

Securing your AWS Cloud environment from ransomware: New eBook available

Securing your AWS Cloud environments from ransomwareOrganizations around the world are making headlines after falling victim to ransomware attacks. Ransomware is malicious code designed to gain unauthorized access to systems and data and encrypt that data to block access by legitimate users. Once ransomware has locked users out of their systems and encrypted their sensitive data, cyber criminals demand a ransom before providing a decryption key to unlock the data. Typically, organizations are completely shut down by an attack, incurring significant costs and loss of business productivity because basic IT and cybersecurity actions weren’t in place.

A newly released Amazon Web Services (AWS) eBook, “Securing your AWS environments from ransomware,” shares who is at risk and why ransomware is effective, whether to pay or not pay the ransom, and how customers can automatically inherit certain security controls by building on AWS. When building on the AWS Cloud, there are important security perspectives and services that you can apply to strengthen your ability to fight ransomware before, during, and after an incident takes place.

Whether you’re just getting started or already building on AWS, we have resources dedicated to helping protect critical systems and sensitive data against ransomware. AWS can help demystify how to align with the internationally adopted National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), introduce how AWS services like AWS Backup, AWS GuardDuty, and Amazon Detective can improve your security posture, and key processes you should have prepared for real-life ransomware scenarios.

For example, did you know that you can automatically segment Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (Amazon VPCs) into isolated components so that only necessary traffic is available can reduce ransomware’s ability to spread indiscriminately across AWS environments? Or that Amazon Inspector can search for critical vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE), assess your AWS instances against security benchmarks, and fully automate notifying security and IT professionals when action is warranted?

Dive deeper by checking out more security resources dedicated to helping secure your AWS environments from ransomware:

View the on-demand webinar: Protecting your data from ransomware attacks and the aftermath
Watch the whiteboard videos: Preventing ransomware using AWS and AWS best practices for defending against ransomware threats

Check out the eBook Securing your AWS environments from ransomware.” If you have questions or want to learn more, contact us.

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