Summer of Security: Ransomware Resilience Blog Series

May 13, 2025

By Mackenzie Gryder

Welcome to Gate 15’s Summer of Security: Ransomware Resilience Blog Series, where we will be reviewing all aspects of ransomware that organizational leaders and cybersecurity professionals need to consider to ensure they have a more resilient organization. Every other week we’ll be offering insights, best practices, and actionable strategies to help your organization protect your data and dollars. Each post in the series explores a different aspect of ransomware response and prevention, helping organizations better understand evolving threats and how to effectively manage them.

Upcoming Topics:

“Blueprints Before Breaches: Planning for Ransomware Resilience.” Why it matters: Having a ransomware response plan is essential for minimizing disruption and loss during an attack. A strong plan outlines clear roles, includes legal, IT, executive, and insurance stakeholders, and ensures critical resources like cyber insurance and incident responders are ready in advance. Preparation, coordination, and regular testing are key to an effective response.
“Test, Don’t Guess: Exercising Your Response Plan.” Why it matters: Exercising your ransomware response plan means regularly testing it through tabletop exercises and simulated attacks to identify gaps and improve coordination. These drills help ensure all team members from the SOC to the C-Suite understand their roles and can respond quickly under pressure. Practicing in advance builds confidence and reduces chaos during a real incident.
“Crisis Comms: Talking Clearly When Ransomware Strikes.” Why it matters: Effective communication during a ransomware incident is critical to managing internal coordination and external messaging. This includes having pre-approved templates, designated spokespeople, and clear protocols for informing employees, customers, regulators, and the media. A strong communications plan helps control the narrative, maintain trust, and avoid legal or reputational fallout.
“Stronger Together: The Power of Information Sharing.” Why it matters: Sharing Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and Tactics, Techniques & Procedures (TTPs) with industry peers and authorities can assist incident response, as well as boost collective resilience. It can help assist in your own response, as well as identify potential emerging threats in the industry.
“Lock It Down: Why MFA Isn’t Optional Anymore.” Why it matters: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is one of the simplest and most effective tools to stop attackers from walking through your digital front door. Implementing MFA across all systems reduces the risk of unauthorized access, making it more difficult for attackers to gain control of sensitive accounts. It’s a simple yet highly effective defense against credential-based attacks often used in ransomware incidents.
“Digital Firebreaks: Network Segmentation for Containment.” Why it matters: Network segmentation involves dividing a network into smaller, isolated subnetworks to limit the spread of malware. By segmenting critical systems from less sensitive areas, organizations can contain a breach and prevent it from affecting the entire network. This strategy minimizes potential damage and aids in faster recovery by restricting ransomware’s ability to move laterally across systems.
“Hack Yourself First: Pen-Testing for Prevention.” Why it matters: Simulated attacks help uncover vulnerabilities before real attackers do, allowing organizations to fix flaws proactively. Regular pen-tests help uncover weaknesses in systems, networks, and applications before attackers can take advantage of them. By proactively addressing these security gaps, organizations strengthen their defenses and reduce the likelihood of a successful ransomware breach.
“Patch It or Pay: Closing the Door on Exploits.” Why it matters: Unpatched systems are prime targets for ransomware. Timely patching ensures that known weaknesses are addressed, reducing the attack surface available to cybercriminals. By keeping systems up-to-date, organizations can prevent ransomware from taking advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities.
“Back It Up or Lose It: Data Recovery Strategies That Work.” Why it matters: Reliable, tested backups are often the last line of defense—without them, victims face paying the ransom or losing critical data permanently. Organizations should review backup strategies, such as frequency, redundancy, and testing, to minimize downtime and data loss after an attack.“Lessons from the Ashes: Post-Incident Analysis.” Why it matters: Conducting thorough post-mortems after ransomware incidents helps identify root causes, improve defenses, and prevent repeat attacks. A thorough post-incident analysis will include both a technical review of how the attack occurred, as well as a review of the organizational response and decision-making processes.
“Lessons from the Ashes: Post-Incident Analysis.” Why it matters: Conducting thorough post-mortems after ransomware incidents helps identify root causes, improve defenses, and prevent repeat attacks. A thorough post-incident analysis will include both a technical review of how the attack occurred, as well as a review of the organizational response and decision-making processes.

In each of our blogs, we’ll also highlight select ransomware trends from our partners at eCrime.ch, as well as other leading security organizations, like these updates from Coalition’s recent 2025 Cyber Claims Report:

The average loss from ransomware incidents surged by 68% in the first half of 2024, reaching approximately $353,000 per claim
Threat actors demanded higher ransoms. With average demands around $1.3 million. Coalition successfully negotiated these down by an average of 57% when payment was deemed necessary
Ransomware attacks slightly declined, but threat actors became more targeted and destructive

Gate 15 has worked across the Critical Infrastructure environment to develop cybersecurity plans and tabletop exercises for trade associations and owner/operators. We are pleased to offer 10% off ransomware exercises to new clients that are booked before 30 September 2025. Send out an email and mention this blog, and let’s discuss how to boost your organizational resilience together.

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