Endpoint Security Solutions to Prevent Ransomware in Indian Enterprises

Ransomware attacks on Indian companies have continued to rise exponentially. Ransomware criminals enjoy targeting many endpoints because they can disrupt businesses, steal data, and financially extort victims in the fastest way.

Therefore, more proactive chief information security officers (CISOs) are making **endpoint security solutions** a key part of their organisation’s cyber defence infrastructure; they view them as a core necessity rather than an option.

As the enterprise arm of Quick Heal Technologies Limited, Seqrite provides businesses with advanced, artificial intelligence (AI)-based protection to create strong cyber-defence postures against doctoring cybercriminal behaviours within both the Indian and global (US) threat environment.

Ransomware Attacks in India: A Rising National-Scale Threat

The latest threat intelligence from Seqrite Labs reveals the pace at which ransomware operations can evolve, along with what is happening in each of the Top 5 regions regarding double extortion ransomware activity in 2023–2024, with India among the three most targeted by these campaigns. Among other trends, India has been seeing:

• A rising target in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, IT /ITeS.
• Ransomware attacks will continue utilising AI for both Credential Harvesting and Phishing at scale.
• Ransomware variants are being developed to bypass traditional/legacy antivirus (AV) solutions.
• Ransomware criminals are shifting their focus from traditional endpoints/devices to non-managed endpoints/devices (primarily remote devices/users).

Ransomware groups have been merging automated and human-operated intrusion methods, making traditional prevention methods inadequate.

How Modern Ransomware Breaches Enterprise

Organisations in India are facing recurring ransomware breaches. The lifecycle of a typical ransomware attack includes:

1. Entry Point — Hacking into company systems through means like phishing emails, VPN credentials that are compromised, or exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.
2. Endpoint — The execution of ransomware on devices (i.e. computers, smartphones and tablets).
3. Privilege Escalation — Attackers obtain administrator credentials (e.g., via social engineering) and move laterally across the enterprise to gain access to all assets.
4. Data Exfiltration — The copying of sensitive files from the corporation to a server or another location controlled by the attackers.
5. Encryption and Extortion — Lockdown of critical systems, shutdown of business operations, and demand for a ransom.

The only way to break out of the cycle is through a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity that encompasses intelligence, automation and adheres to the **Zero Trust security** model.

The Prevention Stack: What Strong Endpoint Security Must Include

To close attack gaps effectively, enterprises require enterprise endpoint security solutions built for modern hybrid work environments. Highly mature organisations deploy a set of enterprise endpoint security solutions that are key to helping close endpoint attack gaps. These solutions provide many features, including:

1. Next-Gen Malware Protection

• AI/ML behaviour-based detection for unknown or new threats

• Prevention against fileless, script-based, and memory-based attacks

• Anti-exploit protection for browsers and applications

2. Ransomware-Centric Defences

• Monitoring of real-time encryption activity

• Automatic rollback of changes made to files by malicious users

• Early visibility of intrusions through deception techniques

3. Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR/XDR)

• Correlation of endpoint telemetry with network and cloud signals

• Automated containment of devices infected by malware

• Advanced threat intelligence-driven threat-hunting capabilities

4. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

• Eliminates implicit trust

• Controls access based on identity, device health, context and granularity

5. Mobile threat defence

Increasingly, mobile devices are used for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and remote work, creating more opportunities for attack because they are a common entry point into the enterprise network. Strong solutions provide mobile threat defence capability to protect Android and iOS devices from malware, phishing and configuration exploits.

Leading enterprise endpoint security vendors today offer all these capabilities through an integrated console, simplifying deployment and enabling faster incident response.

Connecting Endpoint Protection with Incident Response

Having strong protection will minimise your risk, but you will not achieve a resilient end-user environment until your endpoint security and incident response work together.

Here are the capabilities that modern approaches will deliver:

• Automatically isolate an infected endpoint in less than a minute.
• Provide forensic insights to identify the cause of the issue.
• Provide threat intelligence to contain threats before they spread.
• Use a playbook to perform remediation actions through a SOAR platform.
• This enables disrupting ransomware attempts before they cause outages.

Best Practices for Indian Companies

To improve your organisation’s defence against ransomware attacks, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) should implement these best practices:

• Establish a strong patch and vulnerability management strategy.
• Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all access points.
• Implement least privilege and Zero Trust policies.
• Monitor all endpoints, including remote and unmanaged devices.
• Train employees continuously on how to avoid email scams and social engineering.

Use endpoint detection and response (EDR) and extended detection and response (XDR) to gain in-depth visibility and enable fast remediation.

Final Thoughts: Strengthen Your Endpoint Security Before the Next Attack

Ransomware attacks are evolving rapidly, and attackers are still targeting endpoints to execute them. Enterprises in India need an endpoint security solution that enables prevention, detection, response, and recovery in a single, intelligence-driven capability.

Seqrite delivers this capability through its extensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions built using Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture principles, combined with the world-class research from Seqrite Labs. If you want to mitigate your organisation’s ransomware risk and enhance overall security across all types of devices, it is time to modernise your endpoint defence stack.

Learn more about Seqrite’s solutions or speak with our security experts to establish a secure, scalable foundation for your enterprise cybersecurity program.