How RMM Helps Stop Ransomware Before It Spreads
Ransomware is malicious software that locks your files or systems and demands payment to get them back. A lot of attackers now steal the data first, then threaten to leak it if you don’t pay.
Small firms often tell me they’re too small to be a target. I wish that were true. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s Ransomware playbook (ITSM.00.099) notes that small and medium-sized organizations are targets too, because attackers see their security as weaker. The same playbook reports that ransomware incidents reported to the Cyber Centre by Canadian victims increased by an average of 26% each year between 2021 and 2024.
What happened at a furniture retailer we look after
One of our clients is a high-end furniture retailer in the GTA. Their on-premises network was hacked.
Our cybersecurity stack and our 24×7 SOC team caught it within minutes. Not days later. Minutes.
Every password was reset. We also reset the Active Directory master login key, called krbtgt, twice. In plain English: once attackers are inside a Windows network, they can steal login tickets that let them keep moving around as if they belonged there. Resetting that key twice makes those stolen tickets stop working. Within two hours they were back in business, with no data loss at all.
What made that possible wasn’t one magic product. It was having the right tools already running on every machine, with people watching them around the clock. RMM is a big part of that.
So what is RMM?
RMM stands for remote monitoring and management. It’s software your IT provider installs on every computer and server in your firm. From one place, we can see the health of every device, push updates, get alerts when something looks off and fix problems remotely without walking over to your desk. Our platform is NinjaOne.
RMM isn’t antivirus, though. I think of it as the control panel. It keeps devices healthy and gives us fast access when we need to act.
How ransomware usually gets in
The Cyber Centre’s playbook lists the common ways in: phishing emails with bad links or attachments, password guessing against accounts without multi-factor authentication, unpatched software and end-of-life devices, and services like remote desktop left exposed to the internet.
That second one is why I keep going on about MFA. The big lesson from the retailer incident was to enforce MFA on Microsoft 365. The others are a lot of what RMM is built to deal with.
Patching closes the doors
Unpatched software is one of the easiest ways in. Patching 20 or 40 computers by hand is tedious, so it gets skipped. With RMM, updates for Windows and many common applications are scheduled and pushed automatically, and we can see which machines are behind and why.
You can’t protect what you don’t know about
Most firms don’t have an accurate list of their devices. There’s the old desktop in the back room, the reception PC, the laptop a partner uses from home.
RMM keeps an up-to-date inventory of every device, with its operating system, software and warranty status. That’s how we spot computers running unsupported versions of Windows, software that shouldn’t be there and machines that have quietly stopped checking in.
Alerts catch the small stuff early
RMM raises an alert when something changes. Security software gets turned off or falls out of date. A backup doesn’t run. A disk starts filling up unusually fast. A device goes weeks without a patch.
None of that is ransomware by itself. But those are exactly the gaps attackers rely on, and closing them quickly shrinks the window.
Speed when something goes wrong
The Cyber Centre’s playbook says one of the first steps in a ransomware incident is to isolate affected devices from the network so it can’t spread. With RMM, we can connect to a machine remotely within minutes, investigate and help take it off the network. After the retailer job, I’m convinced speed isn’t a nice extra. It’s most of the game.
RMM is one layer, not the whole thing
On its own, RMM won’t stop every attack. Ours works alongside Huntress, which watches for suspicious behaviour on computers and in Microsoft 365 that traditional antivirus can miss. Datto handles backup and recovery, so if the worst happens we can restore to physical or virtual environments, with backups kept in Canadian data centres. Dark web monitoring flags when your staff’s work credentials show up in known data leaks. The Cyber Centre calls this layered approach defence in depth.
Ransomware doesn’t keep office hours either. Our regular support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with after-hours support for urgent issues, and the RMM agent keeps checking in and recording alerts whether your office is open or not.
People and privacy still matter
A short, regular reminder about phishing still goes a long way. If ransomware exposes personal information, PIPEDA may require you to report the breach to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and notify the people affected. The OPC explains the rules in its guide to mandatory breach reporting.
Find out where your gaps are
If you’re not sure every computer in your firm is patched, monitored and backed up, it’s worth checking.
Book a free 30-minute call with Midas Tech. We’ll review your current setup and send you a written fix-first list, so you know what to fix first.
Book your free 30-minute call or call us at 1-905-787-2038.