With household names such as Renault ceasing manufacturing and the National Health Service of the U.K. actively redirecting patients from hospitals that are incapable of providing critical health care, ransomware has moved well beyond an annoyance that impacts your grandmother’s laptop and directly into the global spotlight.

Over the past few days, however, the behavior of WannaCry has become better understood. With this clarity comes the somewhat unfortunate realization that many organizations could have avoided a lot of misfortune and unwanted publicity by adhering to some fairly straightforward security practices.