ActZero, a Gartner-recognized Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, announced the addition of a Ransomware Readiness Assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program simulates a ransomware attack sequence, which can expose critical vulnerabilities and lateral pathways left open by existing tools. With this valuable visibility businesses can start reducing risk immediately.

Adversaries expect small businesses to lack proper ransomware defenses. With ActZero MDR, they can now prove them wrong.

Adversaries are turning up the pressure on their victims, demanding average ransoms nearing $1M, and these ransomware events are becoming more widespread. In response, cyber insurers are tightening the qualifying criteria and regulators strengthening compliance requirements, placing SMEs in further jeopardy.

Despite recent considerable investments of time and resources, SMEs’ confidence in their cybersecurity posture remains low. Misguided efforts, including using single point protection products and dated threat intelligence to solve individual challenges simply doesn’t scale.  This may have even created a false sense of security preparedness. The Ransomware Readiness Assessment validates current vendor performance, demonstrating the gaps, and giving SMEs a clear picture of their security posture.

“Ransomware is constantly evolving and targeted to beat even the most popular prevention methods. Most cyber defense teams aren’t aware how much ransomware techniques can evolve over a 24-hour period” said Chris Finan, President & Chief Operating Officer at ActZero.  “Recent vulnerabilities like Follina and Log4J, show how quickly adversaries adapted their tactics to stay ahead of vendor mitigation guidance. Our assessments demonstrate how ActZero consistently and considerably outperforms its peers, protecting against the ransomware vulnerabilities they leave exposed.”

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Over the past few months of assessment activity, ActZero has discovered that, on average, its MDR service was able to detect and block a class-leading 89% of all common and recent ransomware events techniques and tactics, including emerging threats. Average dwell time figures were less than 17 minutes.  Comparatively, its well-known legacy EDR, MDR and XDR industry peers detected and blocked an average of only 18%, 40%, and 54% respectively, with an average dwell time of 1 hour 38 minutes, enough time to cause considerable damage in an enterprise’s ecosystem. ActZero continues to use learnings from completed assessments to introduce new detections in its effort to eliminate cyber threats.

The introduction of the Ransomware Readiness Assessment follows the company’s announcement earlier this week regarding the launch of the Ransomware Task Force’s Blueprint for Ransomware Defense, for which ActZero was a significant contributor. ActZero is positioned to help SMEs not only understand, plan for, and track implementation Safeguards, but complete the resilience effort through its MDR service.

Similar to penetration or vulnerability testing, ransomware simulations are an effective method of discovering weaknesses and closing the gaps before adversaries exploit them. SMEs looking to evaluate their current protections and begin the journey to improve their ransomware resilience are encouraged to REGISTER HERE for ActZero’s complementary Ransomware Readiness Assessment.

ActZero is a Gartner-recognized provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services that offers 24/7 Ransomware Defense You Can Measure, providing threat protection for small and mid-size enterprises, empowering customers to improve their cybersecurity efforts without taxing existing budgets and resources.  We combine our core AI and ML technologies and processes with human threat hunting and intelligence to detect and identify vulnerabilities, eliminating more threats in less time.  We actively partner with our customers to drive security engineering, increase internal efficiencies and effectiveness and, ultimately, build a mature cybersecurity posture.  Whether shoring up an existing security strategy, or building a primary line of defense, ActZero’s client-first approach helps reduce the unique risks and gaps that could leave a business vulnerable to attack.

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