How to prevent ransomware: Mitigation strategies for MSPs

While it’s not possible to prevent ransomware attacks, we can significantly reduce the potential of a ransomware event, along with that event’s impact to a business. Building a strategy to combat ransomware requires a multi-layered security approach that protects your MSP clients from multiple cyber threats across several platforms. A strong defense includes access controls, regular system updates, advanced email protection, smart network segmentation, and robust endpoint protection.  

But the most important factor? Well-trained employees who can recognize and report suspicious activity. Combine this with reliable backups and a solid incident response plan, and you have a strong defense against even the most determined attackers. 

Key takeaways

• Secure systems with strong access controls like multi-factor authentication (MFA), and keep systems updated—yesterday’s vulnerability is today’s entry point for ransomware. 

• Use network segmentation to contain infections before they spread. 

• Deploy endpoint protection that detects and responds to threats in real time. 

• Turn your team into your first line of defense with ongoing cybersecurity training. 

• Plan for worst-case scenarios—maintain encrypted, isolated backups and test them regularly. 

• A well-planned incident response strategy is critical for MSPs and their clients. Every second counts. 

Defining ransomware

MSPs are all too familiar with the horror stories of ransomware , a form of malware that encrypts and locks files. One moment, employees are working normally, the next, they’re facing an on-screen ransom demand, requiring payment.  

The rise of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) has made these attacks even more accessible for cybercriminals—and it’s not just MSP clients. Notorious variants like Black Basta, Conti, LockBit, NotLockBit, and PYSA have specifically targeted MSPs, aiming to compromise their systems and access to dozens of client networks.  

Beyond data encryption, ransomware attacks can destroy client trust, damage reputations, and lead to legal challenges, making prevention a top priority for MSPs. 

Ransomware prevention strategies

Reducing ransomware events requires multiple layers of defense that work in tandem to create a strong security posture. Below are essential tactics on how to prevent ransomware infections before they spread. 

Build access control strategies

The wrong person with the wrong access can open unwanted doors to the threat of ransomware attacks. Start with the principle of least privilege—give users only what they need to accomplish their jobs and nothing more. When someone can access only the systems and data necessary for their role, you can reduce your attack surface drastically.  

MSPs must also implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for every user at every client regardless of role. This minimum standard ensures that most account attacks are not successful, even with a leaked or captured password. While traditional SMS (texting) and TOTPs (time-based one-time passwords) significantly increase the security of systems, considering MFA enhancements like a FIDO2 (fast identity online 2) protocol, will eliminate current man-in-the-middle attacks, which is a vulnerability to traditional protocols. 

In addition, building automation into the employee offboarding process can help immediately revoke access for departing employees. If roles change, so should access rights. For the most critical systems, MSPs should consider implementing privileged access management (PAM) solutions to deliver even stronger protection for their clients.      

Establish network security best practices

How can MSPs prevent ransomware from affecting their client’s network infrastructure? It all starts with building strong walls and observing what threats come through the gates. 

Traditionally, firewalls served as the first line of defense against malicious traffic. But in today’s hybrid world, firewalls are no longer just a physical box at a physical location. Implementing services like SASE (secure access service edge) can effectively place a ‘firewall’ between every endpoint and the platform or data it is accessing. SIEM & SOC along with intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) add other crucial layers, spotting, discovering, alerting, and blocking suspicious threats before they can do harm.  

Segmentation is also one of the most effective strategies for how to prevent ransomware on physical or virtual networks. Think of your network as a ship with watertight compartments. Even if one section floods, the vessel should still float. MSPs can follow this strategy for their clients by creating separate network zones using VLANs and access control lists to restrict traffic between segments. This prevents ransomware from moving laterally across your infrastructure. 

Lastly, establish email security solutions with advanced threat protection to filter out any malicious attachments and links—far before they even reach your users’ inboxes. 

Create training and awareness programs

Your team and your clients’ employees are either your strongest defense or your weakest link. Even with the most sophisticated technical defenses in the world, employees can sometimes unknowingly trigger a ransomware attack by clicking a suspicious link or email.  

Build comprehensive security awareness training that’s engaging, relevant, and frequent. It’s best to focus on how to recognize phishing attempts. Use real-world examples to highlight red flags and establish clear reporting procedures. 

MSPs should incorporate security awareness training into their service offerings to enhance client cybersecurity. 

Practice patch management

Unpatched vulnerabilities in hardware and software are unlocked doors and open windows for ransomware operators. To protect your clients from vulnerabilities, set up a structured patch management process that prioritizes critical security updates. Create a comprehensive inventory of everything that needs updating—operating systems, applications, firmware, and network devices. Automate patching where possible to enhance efficiency and minimize risk. In addition, be sure to retire or replace legacy hardware and software that is end-of-life before it places a risk to the organization 

Establish clear patching schedules. The most critical security updates should go out as soon as possible, while less urgent ones can wait for regular maintenance windows. Always test patches in a controlled environment first before deploying them widely. 

While not recommended for best practices, for legacy systems that can’t be patched, retired, or replaced, implement additional security controls like network segmentation and enhanced monitoring to mitigate the risks they pose.  

Discover and monitor all assets

You can’t secure what you don’t know exists. Many networks have shadow IT and forgotten systems that aren’t monitored regularly. To protect against those vulnerabilities, implement automated asset discovery tools to maintain an accurate inventory of everything connected to your networks and your clients’. This includes both managed devices as well as BYOD or IoT gadgets that tend to fly under the radar.  

Set up continuous monitoring to provide real-time visibility into endpoint behavior, network traffic patterns, and system resource usage. These tools can help you spot the earliest warning signs of ransomware, such as unusual file access patterns or unexpected system changes.  

With continuous monitoring in place, establish baselines for what “normal” looks like on your networks, so you can quickly spot when something’s off. Regular vulnerability scanning helps to identify potential weak points.  

Stay on top of industry threats

Yesterday’s protections may not be effective enough to stop tomorrow’s attacks, which means staying informed is critical. MSPs must integrate threat intelligence into their daily operations. 

Focus on ransomware trends most relevant to your clients’ industries and subscribe to security advisories and threat feeds from reputable sources—such as Cybersecurity Dive, Hacker News, or Security Affairs—so your team has access to timely heads-ups about emerging threats.  

You can also catch up on the evolving threat landscape by downloading our 2025 MSP Threat Report or by following the ConnectWise Cyber Research Unit (CRU) for real-time updates from our cybersecurity experts. 

The scale of cybercrime is hard to overestimate. If annual cybercrime were a country, it would have the third-largest gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide after the U.S. and China. With statistics like these, MSPs need to be armed with intelligence and resources to help you focus on preventing threats that matter most to your business model.  

Building your ransomware response plan

Having a solid, effective ransomware response plan is a key part of a prevention plan to protect your MSP and your clients from the unknown. In the worst-case scenario—where prevention efforts fail—you have a strong course of action to guide you through the process.  

To build your ransomware response plan, start by clearly defining roles and responsibilities during an incident for each client. Clearly defined roles prevent confusion, last-minute changes, and overlapping responsibilities. 

• Discuss your communication strategy: How will they/you communicate the threat to internal teams, affected clients, regulatory bodies, and law enforcement? Prepare notification templates in advance. 

• Develop technical procedures for containment: Which systems get isolated first? Who has the authority to take production systems offline? Create clear decision frameworks for the tough calls, like whether or not to pay a ransom fee. Consider different legal implications for clients, including their industry requirements, and practical recovery options before they are faced with a ticking clock.  

• Document and test recovery procedures: Can your MSP execute procedures for your clients under pressure? Include specific steps for system restoration, verification that systems are malware-free before reconnecting, as well as a logical process for prioritizing which systems come back online first.  

• Consider legal and compliance requirements: Notification needs tend to vary by industry and region. Document everything meticulously for potential insurance claims.  

Ransomware mitigation solutions 

Having effective tools in your arsenal makes a world of difference when your clients are facing sophisticated ransomware threats. Consider recommending additional security measures to mitigate the threat of ransomware, such as:

• Backup and recovery solutions: Follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy by keeping three copies of data on two different media types, with one copy stored offsite. Make sure all backups are immutable or write-once to prevent ransomware from encrypting backup files. Otherwise, ransomware can encrypt your backups, too. Don’t forget to test your restoration procedures regularly.  

• Managed detection and response (MDR) solutions: Modern EDR solutions (the technology) work by monitoring endpoint behavior for suspicious activities and blocking ransomware based on what it does, compared to what it looks like. When tying modern tools to people and processes, you increase your protection to MDR. This ensures the technology is configured properly and alerts are addressed efficiently. This behavioral approach makes MDR solutions effective, even against zero-day threats. Choose solutions with rollback capabilities that can automatically restore affected files if ransomware slips through.  

• Security information and event management & Security operations center (SIEM & SOC) solutions: SIEM & SOC serves as your network’s filter, collecting and analyzing logs from across your infrastructure to spot subtle signs of an attack in progress. Like MDR, SIEM’s technology needs a SOC to provide expertise in proper configuration and understanding of alerts. With advanced analytics and automation capabilities, today’s SIEM & SOC solutions can alert your team to suspicious activity that might indicate ransomware.  

As the threat of cybercrime continues to heighten each year, a unified cybersecurity solution is more critical than ever. ConnectWise is here to help take your security business to new heights with our powerful portfolio of cybersecurity software and data solutions purpose-built for MSPs. With multiple security technologies integrated into one central platform, you’ll have the visibility you need to deliver the security protection your clients demand. See our platform in action by checking out one of our cybersecurity software demos today.