Ransomware has become a serious epidemic affecting businesses of all sizes, and protecting your company is more essential than ever before as the number of ransomware attacks continues to rise.

A report from Cybersecurity Ventures projects that on average there will be a ransomware attack on a business every 14 seconds by the end of 2019 — up from a rate of one attack every 40 seconds in 2017.¹

As ransomware spreads, it continues to evolve and get more sophisticated — and more destructive. In fact, the Cybersecurity Ventures report predicts that damages connected to ransomware attacks will cost $11.5 billion annually by 2019, more than double the $5 billion in ransomware damages estimated for 2017.¹

What does all this mean for small to medium-sized businesses? In order to protect your organization from cyber threats, you need to keep ransomware and cybersecurity top-of-mind and educate your employees about this destructive type of malware and the damage it can do to your business.

To help you address the growing threat of ransomware, we’ve taken a closer look at how ransomware works and the most common variants that are active today. We’ve also gathered our best advice on how to protect your business both proactively by taking precautions to avoid ransomware and reactively by being prepared to recover quickly and easily if you do fall victim to an attack.