Ransomware is malicious software that blocks access to a computer or files until a sum of money is paid. Encryption should protect your data and files, but ransomware uses encryption to take files hostage, locking you out of your documents, photos, and videos. Plus, an infected PC can spread the ransomware to other computers on your network.
Say your employee receives an email from a friend that includes a link to a video showing how to use chopsticks to make heart shapes out of boiled eggs. Intrigued, your employee follows the link and is asked to select Run. Later, everything on their screen changes color, and a window appears informing them that all the files on the computer have been hijacked and encrypted. The employee won’t be able to access anything unless they pay a ransom.
Three ways Microsoft 365 Business Premium protects your company against ransomware
Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides multilayer protection against ransomware.
- It uses Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to help protect against malware and other malicious content in emails, routing messages with unknown attachments to a “sandbox” and not delivering attachments if it detects suspicious activity. Also, the Safe Links feature checks hyperlinks each time a user clicks them and blocks the destination if it deems the site malicious.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium also uses Defender for Business to help protect devices. Defender for Business goes beyond traditional device antivirus: threat and vulnerability management thwarts attacks before they occur, and both endpoint detection and response (EDR) and automated investigation and response defend against manual and targeted attacks. EDR even protects users tricked into bypassing defenses in a highly targeted scenario, detecting and stopping suspicious behaviors automatically and correlating multiple, related alerts into a single incident for reporting and follow-up. Defender for Business helps prevent unauthorized access to common folders so that unauthorized apps, scripts, and executables as well as ransomware that attempts to encrypt files in these locations will be blocked.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium helps recover files after a successful ransomware attack, too. Files stored in OneDrive for Business are automatically versioned, so you can recover versions that predate the ransomware.
Learn more about Microsoft 365 Business Premium at Microsoft 365 Business Premium | Microsoft 365