Organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on their data, making it (and them) a prime target for hackers. Learn how to quickly and safely backup data to ensure business continuity
Organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on their data, making it (and them) a prime target for hackers. Due to a large number of security flaws present in operating systems and software, as well as the increased attack surface as a result of outdated security protocols, remote processes, and workers, etc., it is nearly impossible to prevent cyber criminals from taking advantage of a network.
When cybercriminals launch a ransomware attack, they take your data and computer systems as hostages and threaten to corrupt or damage your data, or make it inaccessible. The goal behind this attack (as its name suggests), is to extort money in exchange for the decryption key.
Any sort of attack on your data can undermine business continuity if you don't have adequate recovery and protection measures.
The only defense against ransomware is a safe backup of your data, (you should both: make backups, and scan them for vulnerabilities regularly). Businesses should have a comprehensive plan to protect their data and recover their systems to a functional state in an emergency.
The 3-2-1 backup rule is a tried-and-true method for protecting data that mandates your company must have at least three copies of your data stored on two distinct types of storage media, with one of the copies stored offline or in the cloud.
This guideline has been around for a long time and has stood the test of time. However, in the absence of backups and an offline backup of your data that ransomware cannot access, you may be forced into paying the ransom to recover your data. The solution? Apply a modern tweak to the 3-2-1 rule for data backups.
The purpose of the tweak is to guarantee that you have at least one backup copy not locked or corrupted, using which you can recover.
In other words, the rule now reads three copies, two media, one offline, and one that has been verified to be recoverable.
Backups and snapshots that are vulnerable to ransomware and not locked or immutable can be encrypted or erased, rendering them useless for data recovery.