Ransomware attacks have grown increasingly common in the last few years. It is a major security problem and probably the biggest form of cybercrime that businesses face today. The attackers gain access to critical data of organizations and demand a ransom for exchange with no guarantee of getting the access to data back.
Preventing ransomware attacks
Even though ransomware attacks are very common and cause major problems, they are not incredibly difficult to prevent. Investing in the prevention of ransomware attacks is just as important as investing in recovery.
Here are five things you can do to prevent your business from ransomware attacks.
Isolate backup data
Cybercriminals usually cause damage by encrypting, modifying or deleting an organization’s data. When they try modification, the ransomware is deployed to change storage blocks which makes your backup system store the altered and encrypted data.
Isolating backup data is a great way to ensure that it is out of reach of the attackers and cannot be modified in case of a ransomware attack.
Use disaster recovery along with backup solutions
Along with having a backup, organizations must also have a disaster recovery plan to protect them in case of ransomware attacks. Modern disaster recovery solutions offer recovery for entire sites or apps in a few clicks and bring granular recovery checkpoints.
They can help you lower recovery point objectives and faster recovery time objectives. The best way is to do multi-layered data protection using the 3-2-1-1 rule. This means that you should store three copies of data on two different media types, one stored offsite and one stored online.
Test to ensure recovery
You can’t be sure of the ability to recover even when you have backup and disaster recovery in place. That is why testing is essential. Test all recovery operations fully by mimicking actual disaster and recovery scenarios to ensure that the protocols are being followed and you will be successful in case of a real attack.
Add air gap data protection
An air gap or air wall is a security measure to protect data from intrusion. A device that is not connected to the internet cannot be attacked remotely. If your backup environment is attached to the same network then a ransomware attack can affect the backup as well. Store data offline to ensure having clean copies of backup data.
Improve your RPOs and speed them up
To reduce data loss, you need to rethink your data protection frequency for better RPOs. Attacks can happen very fast and the best way to avoid damage is to apply the 3-2-1-1 rule and prepare for fast recovery.
