Ransomware: To Pay or Not To Pay? with Amitabh Sinha

Easy Prey

Ransomware may not be on your machines due to your negligence or mistakes. It could be there because of third-party software you are utilizing. Do you know what to do if this happens to you?

Today’s guest is Amitabh Sinha. Amitabh has a PhD in Computer Science and more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software, end-user computing, mobile, and database software. He co-founded Workspot in 2012. He was the General Manager of Enterprise Desktop and Applications at Citrix Systems. In his five years at Citrix, he was the VP of Product Management for XenDesktop and VP of Engineering for the Advanced Solutions Group.

Show Notes:

• [1:03] - Amitabh shares his background and current role and contributions at Workspot.
• [4:35] - The first sign of ransomware in an organization is widespread blue screens and Microsoft machines shutting down.
• [5:40] - How does ransomware find its way to a device?
• [6:59] - Ransomware in your organization is not necessarily your fault.
• [10:37] - Amitabh describes how he has helped client organizations back up and running after having been infected with ransomware.
• [13:11] - Typically, it is not recommended to pay the ransomware, but it may be a viable option for some organizations.
• [15:59] - Most small companies are not prepared to prevent or handle ransomware.
• [17:34] - In most large companies, not all PCs are up to date on security patches.
• [20:41] - Cloud storage is much safer and can be accessed on other physical machines in the event that ransomware shuts down an organization.
• [24:41] - For those who work from home, sometimes multiple machines makes things even more complicated.
• [27:35] - What are you willing to pay to not have something happen? That’s how ransomware takes advantage of people.
• [31:20] - For small companies, there is typically an architectural solution, but that isn’t always viable for large organizations.
• [33:14] - Consider the critical functions of your organizations and what a plan could be if computers were not accessible.
• [34:37] - These types of attacks are more and more frequent.
• [36:44] - Amitabh is confident that AI will make preventing ransomware even more challenging.
• [40:38] - Most people have accepted that a lot, if not all, their information has already been leaked on the internet. But businesses are particularly vulnerable.
• [42:30] - A whole organization can be drastically impacted by just one machine being hit by ransomware.

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