Introduction
SonicWALL sent us a notification recently regarding ransomware vulnerability. Typically, ransomware is difficult to prevent because new strains are released with every infection. Let’s review a few things about why we should care about this alert as well as what the alert is protecting us against.
What is a vulnerability?
Viruses, malware, grayware, ransomware – they are all mostly the same thing – some sort of virus that has malicious intent of varying degrees. Some may just delete data or break your windows, some may send email out from your system to propagate further, but still cause no harm otherwise, others encrypt your entire drive and demand $700-$1,500 in bitcoin currency to retrieve your data. These are all attacks. Some viruses also attack servers, and those situations are very similar, but typically involve data breach and more invasive problems.
Who is susceptible?
Any desktop or laptop computer can be susceptible to a security vulnerability. Even with antivirus software installed, internet browsing typically is the source of infections, followed closely by email attachments. Even the most experienced users have fallen prey to malware attacks.
Servers that host anything at all including VPN, email, and other web services are also vulnerable. Remember, it only requires a single user to bring in an infection to the office that causes chaos and data loss.
What is SonicWALL alert?
SonicWALL services on your firewall act as an additional layer of protection that help with all of these situations. Along with antivirus software, it also has spyware and intrusion prevention services that have daily updates that watch for malicious activity over the web and other network services that would normally be trusted and allowed, but could contain malicious data.
SonicWALL services
None of us want to clean up spyware or server infections. The cost of adding a SonicWALL with active SonicWALL services for an annual or monthly fee is completely worth it. These services are required to ensure that we have done absolutely everything possible to prevent infections on the network.
Click the link below to see an example of a recent alert from SonicWALL:
https://www.mySonicWALL.com/sonicalert/searchresults.aspx?ev=article&id=969
