Bullwall: How Ransomware Impacts Government Organizations

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Government institutions provide critical services to citizens, including healthcare, public safety, transportation, and utilities and as such are prime targets for ransomware attacks. Ransomware attacks can disrupt these services, causing delays, shutdowns, and potentially putting lives at risk. In some cases, ransomware attacks on government institutions may have broader national security implications. For example, if critical infrastructure or sensitive government systems are compromised, it could impact national defense, intelligence operations, and diplomatic relations.

What is Ransomware?

Before we look at the impact of ransomware of government organizations, lets define what ransomware is. Ransomware is a type of malware that holds the victim’s data or device hostage until the ransom is paid. However, once the ransom is paid there is no guaranty that the files will be returned. An increasing trend is to use a double extortion tactic, where an organization is asked to pay a second ransom to prevent exfiltrated data from being publicly leaked or sold to other criminal enterprises.

Ransomware attacks can be carried out through phishing emails, malicious downloads, or exploiting vulnerabilities in software. Preventative solutions and measures such as IT security awareness training go some way to reducing the threat, but ransomware is now the number one cryptocurrency crime.

Impact of Ransomware on Government Organizations

Ransomware attacks on government institutions have increased significantly making them a tier 1 national security threat that affects, schools, local authorities, hospitals and even the military. Due to the high value of data held by government organizations and the disruption that attacks can cause, it puts them at the very forefront of the ransomware threat.

A ransomware attack can not only disrupt public services such as water and electricity, but can cause significant and wide spread damage across all departments including public pensions, organising land searches for people wanting to move house, delays in the judicial system, waste pickup, impacted military operations, cancelled medical procedures and a host of other essential everyday services we rely on.

As well as the disruption that ransomware attacks cause, the resulting loss of data can result in severe financial setbacks and legislative fines. In many cases, the attackers threaten to publicly release the stolen information if the ransom is not paid, and there is no guarantee that the attackers will provide the decryption key even if the ransom is paid. This leaves the institution with no choice but to rebuild their systems and data from scratch which is a considerable investment in both time and money.

Steps to Protect Government Organizations from Ransomware

Given the significant impact that ransomware attacks can have on government organizations, it is crucial to take steps to prevent these attacks. Here are a few steps that organizations can take to protect themselves: 

  1. Implement robust cybersecurity measures:
    Government organizations should implement robust cybersecurity measures, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and anti-malware software. Regularly updating software and operating systems can also help reduce the risk of attacks.
  2. Conduct regular employee training:
    Regular training for employees can help reduce the risk of successful phishing attacks, which are a common method of ransomware delivery.
  3. Regularly backup data:
    Regularly backing up critical data and storing backups in a secure location can help ensure that data is recoverable in the event of a ransomware attack.
  4. Implement multi-factor authentication:
    Multi-factor authentication can help reduce the risk of unauthorized access to systems and data, even if credentials are stolen.
  5. Develop an incident response plan:
    Developing an incident response plan can help organizations respond to a ransomware attack quickly and effectively, minimizing the impact on the organization. A ransomware containment solution is a critical component of such a plan.

Learn More

BullWall offers a ransomware penetration test to help you assess how your current tools respond to various ransomware variants. Or you can schedule a demo of our containment solution.