Ransomware: The Trillion Dollar Security Challenge

Contributed by Alex Guzman, Marketing Program Manager at TD SYNNEX

It’s no secret that ransomware attacks are increasing in both prevalence and severity, with some reports indicating the impact of cyberattacks is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. Cybersecurity solutions were also recently listed as the top technology and upskilling priority for partners, according to the 2023 TD SYNNEX Direction of Technology Report.

Ransomware attacks are financially lucrative for bad actors, and as a result, are becoming more sophisticated and complex. Cybercriminals constantly develop new deployment tactics, making it challenging for security systems to effectively detect and prevent them.

Systems integrators play a vital role in helping organizations defend against ransomware attacks. Their expertise in designing, implementing and managing complex IT systems allows them to provide valuable assistance in several ways:

• Risk Assessment: Assessments help evaluate the technical security of a customer’s network, in the form of vulnerability assessments, penetration testing and security profile assessments. These exercises identify security weaknesses and exploitable vulnerabilities that provide our partners a road map to recommend and deliver appropriate solutions.
• Security Architecture: A strong security architecture is critical to the defense of cybersecurity vulnerabilities to ensure an organization is protected. The design and structure involve planning, implementing and managing technologies and practices to mitigate security risks.
• Employee Training and Awareness: Bad actors exploit vulnerabilities in human behavior to gain unauthorized access to data and networks. Studies show human error accounts for the majority of cyberattacks — accounting for more than 80% of breaches.1 Implementing a security-first culture with your customers is a smart strategy to protect their business-critical systems.
• Incidence Response (IR): IR is the set of procedures in place to detect, analyze, contain and recover from security incidents in an organized, timely manner. A well-defined IR plan is essential to be prepared for security incidents, from initial detection to recovering and restoring data and systems.
• Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance: Organizations can benefit from specialized knowledge, monitoring and proactive security measures managed by third-party managed service providers (MSPs). MSPs have the knowledge and technical expertise to build and manage the correct deployment of security and networking solutions.

Our partners should continue to focus on implementing robust cybersecurity measures with their customers. The TD SYNNEX CyberSolv team is here to help answer your questions and recommend smart, comprehensive solutions. We also have a comprehensive enablement platform with content, tools and resources to put you in the right direction to prioritizing and protecting mission-critical data.