The threat of ransomware persists. According to the Intel 471 Year in Review, the United States remains the most targeted country globally, accounting for 39% of all ransomware attacks. The UK follows distantly at 9%. With new variants like LockBit 2.0 and LockBit 3.0 gaining momentum, it’s clear the danger is not only ongoing—but evolving.
For biotech and life sciences organizations, ransomware attacks pose a major risk to patient data, research continuity, and regulatory compliance. Instead of panicking or overspending on unnecessary, high-cost cybersecurity tools, the expert security team at PTP recommends five proven strategies to drastically reduce your organization’s ransomware risk.
1. Patch Everything
Establish a disciplined vulnerability management process and act on its findings. Unpatched devices—whether a smart light controller, an outdated Windows 2008 server, or an unattended FedEx print station—present low-hanging fruit for attackers. If it's connected to the network, it's a potential entry point.
For biotech IT services and secure lab environments, patching is essential to prevent avoidable breaches in regulated research IT infrastructure.
2. Ensure Offsite Backups
Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule: three total copies of your data, two stored locally on different mediums, and one offsite. As a Veeam VCSP partner, PTP offers reliable backup services to maintain business continuity—even in the face of ransomware.
This is critical for compliant IT services for research labs and maintaining HIPAA and GxP data integrity.
3. Perform a Business Impact Analysis
Work directly with your business owners and executives to understand what data and functions are mission-critical. Identify what you can afford to lose and what must be protected at all costs. This aligns with the "Identify" function of a NIST 800-53 Self-Assessment.
Life sciences IT support must include impact analysis to prioritize data protection and ensure MSP compliance for clinical research.
4. Verify an Incident Response Plan
An incident response plan must exist, be accessible offline, and cover a total loss scenario—including being locked out of Azure AD, Okta, or O365. Don’t assume cloud means immunity—it doesn’t.
Biotech and research labs benefit from managed IT for labs that supports incident response, HIPAA audits, and disaster recovery scenarios.
5. Layered Security: EDR and DNS Filtering
Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) technology and a second layer like DNS filtering or egress traffic control. DNS filtering blocks users from reaching known malicious domains, while EDR detects and neutralizes threats at the endpoint level—your last line of defense.
These are core components of secure IT services for biotech and scientific computing IT support that defend intellectual property and research continuity.
Cybersecurity is about discipline, not just tools. Taking these five steps helps you maintain operational resilience and keeps your organization protected against ransomware threats.
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Authored by:
Rich Hauke, CISSP &
Gary Derheim
Highlights from the Panel Discussion
- [0:58] Hope is not a strategy – The panel emphasized that organizations need an actionable ransomware response plan tailored to their specific risk, not vague assurances.
- [7:00] Ransomware variants evolving – Kirby Kaylor outlined how newer variants like Ryuk are patient, silently encrypting backups and triggering attacks only when recovery options are gone.
- [13:01] Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) – Anyone, even without coding skills, can now purchase ransomware templates online and customize attacks for as little as $6.
- [14:25] Shocking statistics – In the past two years, average ransomware downtime was 16.2 days, and the average ransom paid was $84,000.
- [21:07] Step 1: Use a framework – Rick Pitcairn recommended using a cybersecurity framework like NIST to structure your response and ongoing risk management.
- [25:11] Step 2: Inventory your data – Chris Jordan urged organizations to first understand where all data resides across cloud, endpoints, and on-prem systems.
- [27:00] Behavior-based detection is critical – Prevention alone is not enough. Listening to audit trails and identifying behavioral anomalies is now essential for threat detection.
- [32:23] Step 3: Robust backups – Kirby shared the 6 key ingredients for effective backup strategy: Automatic, Off-site, Immutable, Granular, Point-in-Time, and Flexible.
- [40:11] The plan must evolve – Adam Johnson reminded attendees that cybersecurity plans are living documents. As the environment changes, so should your response strategy.
- [43:38] Unified monitoring at scale – Chris emphasized the need for behavioral models, not just search-based analysis, to manage massive, distributed data from cloud and on-prem environments.
- [50:58] Final steps: End-user training & vulnerability scanning – Rick wrapped up with the importance of regular phishing simulations, security awareness training, and penetration testing.
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