The threat of ransomware is no secret – it ranks as a top threat across 92% of industries and more than three quarters of security leaders say ransomware is their top cybersecurity concern. Still, ransomware attacks have exploded by more than 100% in 2025, so although security teams understand the dangers of ransomware, they’re struggling to ward off increasingly sophisticated attackers.
To adequately protect against ransomware, organizations need to prioritize cyber resilience and threat containment, proactively harden their networks, and fix network security weaknesses that allow attackers to move laterally and escalate privileges.
We’ll break down what effective ransomware protection looks like, highlight the blind spots that help attackers thrive, and share practical strategies for stopping ransomware in real time.
How to Prevent Ransomware Attacks
Best practices for preventing ransomware align broadly with strategies for safeguarding against any form of attack; they include:
- Network segmentation: A properly segmented network leaves attackers stranded by cutting off the network access they need to propagate.
- MFA: Stolen or misused credentials are some of attackers’ favorite tools; protecting privileged access with MFA significantly limits the impact.
- Zero Trust: Implement a Zero Trust architecture to prevent unauthorized access and proactively minimize ransomware risks.
- Backup systems: Keep regular, encrypted backups in an isolated environment disconnected from the main network to ensure you have the option to recover in case ransomware encrypts critical data.
- Continuous monitoring and response: Watch for and respond to any suspicious activity in your network to detect emerging threats early. Note: Endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems alone won’t block lateral movement – while detection is important, it often arrives too late.
- Robust perimeter defenses: Minimize threats by strengthening North-South traffic protection with solutions like next-generation firewalls (NGFW) and granular access controls.
- Disabling unnecessary ports and services: Shut down unused remote access protocols (like RDP and SMB) and enforce strict access controls to reduce ransomware’s attack surface.
Even as investments in security and risk management have steadily risen in recent years, today’s ransomware gangs are smarter – and stealthier – than ever. With more than 60 groups currently operating, some of the most active ransomware gangs have increased their victims by more than 200% in the last year. As threats proliferate and evolve to outsmart traditional security strategies, a prevention-focused approach may not effectively protect against ransomware.
According to Dr. Chase Cunningham, aka Dr. Zero Trust, anyone still hoping to avoid compromise entirely needs to shift their mindset: “Some folks are still not accepting that a breach is an inevitability and they're not applying controls to limit the scope of the breach … that's where we get a lot of this wrong.” In other words, breach containment via granular access controls is the key.
Breach containment: Minimizing the blast radius
Rather than focusing solely on stopping ransomware from getting in, the best way to prevent a ransomware attack from turning into a catastrophe is to prioritize cyber resilience and ensure adversaries have nowhere to go after breaching the network.
Since ransomware’s goal is to encrypt as many assets as possible or find and exfiltrate valuable data to increase leverage, breach containment is critical. And preventing lateral movement to ensure adversaries never reach your sensitive systems or data is easier than you think – with dynamic microsegmentation and identity overlay MFA, cyber resilience is well within reach.
In turn, the best ransomware protection strategy includes proactive approaches for blocking attack pathways and enhancing overall security posture. But organizations must first understand the security gaps that give ransomware room to sneak in – and how to fix them.
Enhancing Ransomware Protection: How to Fix Top Network Security Weaknesses
Ransomware attacks follow a consistent pattern: gain initial access, move laterally to compromise additional assets, escalate privileges, and spread the ransomware sample across the network. So, even though modern defenses have grown more sophisticated, attackers often succeed by exploiting the same weaknesses that have gone unchecked in most environments for years.
From excessive permissions and flat network architecture to vulnerable remote access pathways and beyond, these blind spots give ransomware the tools to wreak havoc. We’ll walk through five common – and preventable – weaknesses that enable ransomware, along with strategies to eliminate them and contain a breach swiftly.
Overprivileged Service Accounts
Service accounts often operate in the background, unmanaged and overlooked as they’re difficult to monitor and complex to secure, yet they frequently have domain admin rights or broad permissions across environments, making them a treasure trove for ransomware groups.
Once compromised, service accounts frequently provide all the access needed to escalate privileges and distribute ransomware across the network.
How to fix it:
- Audit service accounts and restrict access to required assets and logon types
- Use identity-based segmentation to prevent excessive permissions
- Apply MFA to privileged logons and protect every privileged port
Flat Network Architecture
Flat networks lacking internal controls remain a problem for organizations that have only prioritized perimeter-based defenses – and they’re ransomware’s best friend. When one compromised asset can communicate with everything else, the network is always one breach away from disaster.
How to fix it:
- Implement microsegmentation to isolate every asset and secure East-West traffic
- Enforce least privilege across the network
- Prioritize a layered defense that combines NGFWs with network segmentation
Third-Party and Vendor Connections
Whether through VPNs, remote access tools, or cloud services, third-party and remote employee connections often introduce inconsistent security policies. As Aaron Steinke, Head of Infrastructure at La Trobe Financial noted, “Historically, we found that you often end up in a scenario where people have more network access when they're on the VPN because you can't categorize them and classify them well enough.”
Because it’s difficult to effectively secure remote connections without disrupting operations or to verify vendors’ cyber hygiene, attackers frequently target third-party connections with weak security as an entry point into networks.
How to fix it:
- Apply granular controls to limit third-party access
- Consolidate vendor access into a single solution to simplify security
- Enforce MFA for every third-party logon
Insecure Remote Management Protocols
Remote services are frequent targets for attackers looking to expand their blast radius and escalate privileges. They often scan for open RDP, SSH, or WinRM ports and use stolen credentials to access systems, moving through the network as the logged-on user.
When these protocols aren’t properly secured, they roll out a proverbial welcome mat for ransomware.
How to fix it:
- Close all privileged ports by default
- Apply just-in-time MFA to dynamically unlock access
- Limit movement with identity access controls that deny by default
Static Rules and Manual Policy Management
Most firewalls and segmentation tools rely on static rule sets and manual upkeep. In dynamic environments, those rules are outdated almost as soon as they're written. Ransomware actors exploit these gaps to navigate freely.
How to fix it:
- Automatically enforce adaptive policies based on continuous behavioral learning
- Implement holistic segmentation to create a Zero Trust architecture with resilient security built in
How Zero Networks Blocks Ransomware and Contains Threats in Real Time
With Zero Networks, you can address all the network security gaps ransomware loves with one unified platform. Unlike traditional tools that anchor on detection, over-rely on perimeter defenses, or require manual configuration and maintenance, Zero Networks delivers real-time ransomware protection by:
- Orchestrating native firewalls to segment every asset and enforce least-privilege access
- Deploying identity-aware access controls to lock down admin and service accounts
- Applying just-in-time MFA at the network layer to secure privileged access
- Adapting policies dynamically as your network evolves – no manual work required
Try Zero to learn how you can strengthen network security and proactively thwart ransomware.
Not ready for a self-guided product tour? Download our free Microsegmentation Buyer’s Guide – it comes with a checklist for evaluating network segmentation solutions.
