Preventing Real Estate Ransomware

The real estate industry is increasingly aware of the dangers of ransomware, which have been raised due to some recent high-profile incidents. Ransomware is malware (malicious software) that encrypts the files on your network or otherwise blocks access to them. It's called ransomware because you may be prompted to pay a ransom to regain access to the files. Most security professionals advise clients to not pay the ransom because often the hacker will not unencrypt or allow access to the files as a result.

The purpose of this article is to suggest some best practices for avoiding ransomware, limiting its impact, and recovering from it. No suggested best practices can prevent all incidents of ransomware – there will always be a new attack that can bypass certain types of defenses. However, there are some reasonable steps you can take to reduce the ransomware risk for your organization.