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Why Backup Preparation is Critical in Fighting Ransomware

Why Backup Preparation is Critical in Fighting Ransomware

Why Backup Preparation is Critical in Fighting Ransomware

Damn. It finally happened. You found yourself in the middle of a ransomware attack.

In this case there are essentially two courses of action:

  1. Be proactive and lock down sensitive company data.
  2. Head to the Winchester, have a nice pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.

I recommend the first plan. A successful ransomware attack can cripple an organization, but with a powerful backup and recovery solution, hackers can be stopped before they have they even have a chance. Below, we take a look at how proper preparation and data backup can keep that random money out of criminals’ hands.


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While ransomware has been around for sometime, it’s become much more of a omnipresent threat than in years past due to the rise of untraceable crypto-currencies. If Cryptolocker didn’t get your attention, than it was Simplelocker that did. If it wasn’t Simplelocker, than it was WannaCry. The ability for organizations to pay ransoms with currencies such as Bit Coin, has allowed individuals to become much more complacent in making Randomware crimes a profitable business.

The first step to staying safe from ransomware in the first place is to have a definite plan before you’re actually hit with the attack, not after. You should know exactly who to call, how to reach them quickly, and you should hide your install discs and passwords in a location that couldn’t be affected by the attack.

A significant part of backup and recovery is testing. According to George Crump of Tech Target, while disaster recovery involves a whole system needing to be recovered, ransomware involves a small amount of data spread across a massive amount of unstructured data. This means that organizations need to learn how to recover a very certain amount of data specific sub directories. Crump mentions that backup solutions are getting much better at delivering reports on this information. By testing your recovery strategies often and backing up your data more frequently, organizations can be better equipped to deal with an unpleasant visit from a ransomware attack.

Setting up isolated backups is a critical step in keeping your data safe from a ransomware attack, but it’s essential to make sure that your data backups aren’t accessed as if they were part of a regular file repository. According to Channel Partners Online, “There are two points to protect. One is the repository itself, and the other is the backup server in use. We need to think architecture more than individual products. We think architecture by knowing how ransomware hits today. Multiple layers of protection are always best.”

 

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