Key Considerations for Data Backup Strategy against Ransomware

Ransomware is one of the biggest threats faced by business organizations. The Recent WannaCry outbreak is just one example of it. There are many other variants of Ransomware that are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to detect and manage the time. With at least 50% businesses that got affected by Ransomware attacks in 2017, these attacks are set to grow further in future both in numbers and complexity. For the people are not aware, Ransomware is the type of computer virus if downloaded can potentially encrypt all of your computer files and lock them unless you pay the ransom amount. In case your data is locked down, there is no way to unlock your data. Therefore you will have to make a choice in between paying the ransom amount or forgetting your data. With 3.72 million UAE Consumers as Victims of Cybercrime in 2017 that resulted in lose of AED 3.86 billion, experts are predicting ransomwares as one of biggest threat faced by organizations and customers in Dubai in 2018.

“71% of companies targeted by ransomware attacks have been infected in 2016”  

Here are few best practices that will make your data backup strategy against ransomware attacks successful.

Take Regular Data Backup.

You must have regular data backup in place, without it you are putting your organization at risk of losing business-critical data. Access to most recent and updated business data is essential for employee productivity however without this access you are in danger of losing employee productivity as well.  Regular data backup can be challenging while having mobile workforce producing data continuously. It is because it is difficult to predict end-use location and schedule. Therefore it is important to have regular data backup strategy in place based on shorter recovery point objective.

At Whitehats, we fully understand this need and ensure that our data backup solutions are second to none. We provide hybrid protection that adds an extra layer of security to protect confidential information of your company.

Isolate Backups from Endpoint Devices.

There are different variants of ransomware that can even decrypt network connected back up and mapped drives. That means you must use data backup solutions that can provide endpoint device security as well. Storage for endpoint backup should have the ability to isolate itself from your organization`s network. Most sophisticated latest variants of ransomware know how to encrypt data in network connected devices that some time cannot be decrypted even after paying ransom amount.

Make Sure your Data Backup is Secure.

You must make sure only authorized persons and applications has access to backup data for any purpose like data restoration etc. to protect your data backup, you must implement appropriate security. Due to Ransomware data breach costs has increased 24%. If you have unsecured endpoint backup solution in place, then you are vulnerable to ransomware attack. You can ask your data backup service provider what type of end security can be provided to secure it against all types of attacks including ransomware. A secure endpoint data backup solutions will have an end to end encryption for data transfer and storage. In case of cloud data backup, the security will be the responsibility of cloud service provider however you must implement security at your end.

“72%  percent of infected businesses lost access to data for two days or more.”

Verify backup data Integrity and Availability.

After making sure your endpoint data backup is fully secured against ransomware attack, you must make sure your data backup can be restored completely in case of an attack. For example, if you have automated data backup in place that will enable it self-take backups according to the schedule provided. However setting up your data backup may give you a false sense of security while in reality, you may not be able to recover your data from backup. Sometimes your automatic data backup may fail or not take backups of all files. Therefore you much always verify your data backup for integrity and availability of data.

Enforce efficient recovery processes to facilitate business continuity.

Having reliable data backup solutions in place is not enough. Perhaps it's only half of the story. While planning for data recovery strategy in case of ransomware attack organizations must formulate a standard procedure to ensure that they can actually recover from ransomware attack. An efficient business continuity plan will help you to stay safe while decreasing your operational costs related to incident handling. Your business continuity plan should include data backup, restoration produce, and allocation of responsibility related to incidents.

“6 in 10 malware payloads were ransomware in 2017”.

Monitor Logs for Suspicious Behavior or Activities.

With all data backup and its security measures in place, you must also not to forget to keep an eye on suspicious activities on your system. Ransomware attacks increasingly become prevalent and sophisticated that means they are evolving according to preventive measures in place. Therefore keeping an eye on suspicious activities may help you to take more preventive measures as well.

Whitehats specializes in providing all types of data backup solutions in Dubai that includes Tape backup solutions, CDP Backup solutions, Bare metal Backup Solutions, NAS Backup solutions, Offsite Backup solutions and Cloud Backup Solutions.