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UD Pocket Saves the Day After Malware Cripple’s Hospital’s Mission-Critical PCs

Topics: IGEL, virtualization, cybersecurity, healthcare, end-user computing

IGEL Platinum Partner A2U had endpoints within the healthcare organization’s finance department up and running within a few hours following the potentially crippling cyberattack, thanks to the innovative micro thin client.

A2U, an IGEL Platinum Partner, recently experienced a situation where one of its large, regional healthcare clients was hit by a cyberattack. “Essentially, malware entered the client’s network via a computer and began replicating like wildfire,” recalls A2U Vice President of Sales, Robert Hammond.

During the cyberattack, a few hundred of the hospital’s PCs were affected. Among those were 30 endpoints within the finance department that the healthcare organization deemed mission critical due to the volume of daily transactions between patients, insurance companies, and state and county agencies for services rendered. “It was very painful from a business standpoint not to be able to conduct billing and receiving, not to mention payroll,” said Hammond.

Prior to this particular incident, A2U had received demo units of the IGEL UD Pocket, a revolutionary micro thin client that can transform x86-compatible PCs and laptops into IGEL OS-powered desktops.

“We had been having a discussion with this client about re-imaging their PCs, but their primary concern was maintaining the integrity of the data that was already on the hardware,” continued Hammond. “HIPAA and other regulations meant that they needed to preserve the data and keep it secure, and we thought that the IGEL UD Pocket could be the answer to this problem. We didn’t see why it wouldn’t work, but we needed to test our theory.”

When the malware attack hit, that opportunity came sooner, rather than later for A2U. “We plugged the UD Pocket into one of the affected machines and were able to bypass the local hard drive, installing the Linux-based IGEL OS on the system without impacting existing data,” said Hammond. “It was like we had created a ‘Linux bubble’ that protected the machine, yet created an environment that allowed end users to quickly return to productivity.”

Working with the hospital’s IT team, it only took a few hours for A2U to get the entire finance department back online. “They were able to start billing the very next day,” added Hammond.

Defending Against the Siege of Ransomware

Topics: commvault, ransomware, cybersecurity, cyberattacks

The threat of ransomware is only just beginning. In fact, nearly 50% of organizations have suffered at least one ransomware attack in the past 12 months and estimates predict this will continue to increase at an exponential rate. While healthcare and financial services are the most targeted industries, no organization is immune. And the cost? Nothing short of exorbitant.

Confronting modern stealth

Topics: kaspersky, Fileless, APT, Endpoint, Sandbox, EDR

How did we go from train robberies to complex, multi-billion-dollar cybercrimes? The escalation in the sophistication of cybercriminal techniques, which overcome traditional cybersecurity and wreak havoc without leaving a trace, is dizzying. Explore the methods of defense created to defend against evasive attacks, then find out how Kaspersky’s sandboxing, endpoint detection and response, and endpoint protection technologies can keep you secure—even if you lack the resources or talent.

Explore the dizzying escalation in the sophistication of cybercriminal techniques, which overcome traditional cybersecurity and wreak havoc without leaving a trace. Then discover the methods of defense created to stop these evasive attacks.

Problem:
Fileless threats challenge businesses with traditional endpoint solutions because they lack a specific file to target. They might be stored in WMI subscriptions or the registry, or execute directly in the memory without being saved on disk. These types of attack are ten times more likely to succeed than file-based attacks.

Solution:
Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business goes beyond file analysis to analyze behavior in your environment. While its behavioral detection technology runs continuous proactive machine learning processes, its exploit prevention technology blocks attempts by malware to exploit software vulnerabilities.

Problem:
The talent shortage is real. While cybercriminals are continuously adding to their skillset, businesses either can’t afford (or have trouble recruiting and retaining) cybersecurity experts.

Solution:
Kaspersky Sandbox acts as a bridge between overwhelmed IT teams and industry-leading security analysis. It relieves IT pressure by automatically blocking complex threats at the workstation level so they can be analyzed and dealt with properly in time.

Problem:
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) expand laterally from device to device and can put an organization in a constant state of attack.

Solution:
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) stops APTs in their tracks with a range of very specific capabilities, which can be grouped into two categories: visibility (visualizing all endpoints, context and intel) and analysis (analyzing multiple verdicts as a single incident).

Attack the latest threats with a holistic approach including tightly integrated solutions like Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response and Kaspersky Sandbox, which integrate seamlessly with Kaspersky Endpoint Protection for Business.