• March 14, 2024
  • Catagory Data Protection

Protect Your Backups from Ransomware Infections

By : Justin Folkerts

Your backups are not immune to ransomware – infected data can be replicated, so it’s important to configure your data protection so that mission critical information isn’t corrupted and clean copies can be easily restored.

Ransomware is sneaky, and it’s cross-platform. It can sit in in your backups – whether it’s an email, PDF, or Zip file, among many others – waiting to go off. And ransomware attacks don’t discriminate, either. Small and medium-sized organizations are just as viable a target for threat actors as large enterprises.

Ransomware starts with one computer, encrypting some or all its valuable data, but it can easily spread across the network, making all users susceptible and all systems potentially unusable. If ransomware corrupts a critical database, it can cripple your organization, which is why you must protect all your backups.

Preventing dangerous duplicates

If your backups are infected by ransomware, they are no more useful than your primary data – your restoration will just ignite a reinfection.

Protecting your backups from ransomware always starts by preventing users from downloading dangerous files that are riddle with malware, viruses, and ransomware. If a nefarious file does get through due to clever phishing and human error, you must make sure infections can’t be transmitted across your network through file sharing and syncing.

Most of all, you must prevent ransomware from accessing your backups at all costs. Although it’s impossible to fully protect your backups from threats, including ransomware, applying the right rules and leveraging smart software can minimize the likelihood of your backups getting infected.

Follow tried-and-true backup rules

The well-established 3-2-1 rule for backups continues be a good strategy for preventing ransomware infection of replicated files – you should have your original copy of a file, a duplicate that is stored on-site on a different medium, and a copy that is stored off-site. It is recommended that your on-site copy be stored on removeable media, such as tape.

Each of your backups requires a different approach – if you use tape, you should do a full backup rather than a differential or incremental backup. Your onsite tapes should be stored in a secure, fireproof location.

Using versioning for your backups can also prevent ransomware from infected all copies of your data – it saves a new version of the file as backup rather than wiping out the previous backup so you can return to an uninfected iteration, allowing you to easily roll back to a clean copy.

Roll backs are where software tools can help prevent your backups from being infected with ransomware as they can help manage versioning. However, your strategy is just as important as the tools. If you do a complete backup to on-site tape daily outside of office hours, you can back up the most current version. Even if ransomware hits the next day when users are likely to trigger it, you only lose that day.

Once the full backup is restored, you can review the offsite incremental backups done throughout the day to restore specific files with the latest and greatest versions.  

Another strategy is to distribute your backups – by having separate backup systems for different types of data you can reduce the likelihood of ransomware spreading between them.

User endpoints are ransomware’s first target

No matter your backup strategy, protecting your endpoints is always your first line of defence when combatting ransomware. Endpoint data protection combined with employee cybersecurity awareness and training will contain ransomware within the first infected machine, reducing the likelihood of it infecting your backups.

  • December 15, 2022
  • Catagory cybersecurity

How Cybersecurity is Shaping Up for 2023

By : Justin Folkerts

Remote work during the pandemic and the current dynamic of hybrid workplaces has had a strong impact on how you must manage cybersecurity. Remote work isn’t going away, while other longstanding trends as well as new realities will affect cybersecurity in 2023.

Ransomware remains a major threat

Expect ransomware attacks to continue to be a factor in your cybersecurity planning, as threat actors move from encrypting files to targeting third-party cloud providers while continuing to use aggressive, high-pressure tactics to extort victims, including data-encrypting malware and more novel infiltration approaches.

Global geopolitics will affect your business

The ongoing conflict in Europe will mean some of those ransomware threats will come from Russia. Overall, 2023 is going to begin with a great deal of uncertainly and tension, with more state-sponsored threat actors looking to destabilize global economies and specific industry sectors such as logistics and shipping, energy, semiconductors, and financial services.

Zero Trust adoption will grow

With more workloads being moved to the cloud, a Zero Trust approach to security will become more compelling and necessary in 2023, transforming how you secure your infrastructure, including network penetration testing.

Automation will increase, too

It’s near impossible for organizations of any size regardless of budget to keep up with the volume of threats, which means 2023 will see even more automated cybersecurity, enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The downside is the bad guys can leverage automation and AI, too, which means organizations will need to take a more active approach to cybersecurity.

Watch out for bots

Speaking of automated bad guys, be prepared for more bot activity in 2023, which can automate and expand attacks as perpetrators rent out IP addresses to make it difficult to track them.

Your own IT is a threat

Between shadow IT and the proliferation of endpoints either due to remote work or internet of things (IoT), there’s no shortage of attack surfaces for threat actors in 2023. If your endpoints aren’t properly configured and you’re not keeping a handle on shadow IT, your cybersecurity posture will be drastically weakened.

You people can still be a problem

Even with all the right technology in place, the biggest threat cybersecurity in 2023 will continue to be your own people, whether it’s by accident or due to insider threats from unhappy or former employees. Training combined with a Zero Trust approach will mitigate risk to your business.

What won’t change in 2023 is that cybersecurity isn’t something most organizations can handle on their own, so if you haven’t already, make it the year you see how a managed service provider can help evaluate and shore up your security posture.

  • August 31, 2022
  • Catagory cybersecurity

Insurance not a substitute for good cybersecurity

By : Justin Folkerts

You don’t use auto insurance as an excuse to drive recklessly, so why would you cut corners on cybersecurity because you have ransomware insurance?

With ransomware attacks doubling in 2021 compared to the previous year – due in large part to the massive shift to remote work – the average cost of a data breach grew to record levels by more than 10% in 2021 as threat actors took advantage of a broader attack surface that resulted from a hybrid work environment.

Much of the costs of these breaches were covered by insurance, including ransom payments, but cybersecurity insurance providers are becoming more selective with their coverage as payouts have increased – qualification processes are more rigorous and the threshold for a payout is getting higher.

If you were depending on cybersecurity insurance without a data protection strategy, you need to seriously rethink how you implement security in your organization.

As ransomware attacks rise, so do premiums

For starters, the number of ransomware attacks is only going to get higher as more and more threat actors with a wide array of experience and expertise look to make money off data breaches – cybersecurity insurance is not going to be enough to save your business.

It’s not that you should cancel your insurance – you should be prepared to pay more – but you must also have people, processes, and technology in place to secure your business and sensitive customer data. Making an insurance claim should be a last resort – no matter how much you pay for it, it won’t bring your data back if you fall victim to a successful attack.

You really don’t want to be paying the ransom, even though many companies go that route – that only emboldens the bad guys to keep at it. Some insurance companies are no longer even covering ransomware payouts. If cybersecurity insurance premiums are going up and not covering what they used to, it’s time to implement better security practices – prevention is much more affordable in the long run.

Your MSP can help you up your security game

Cybersecurity awareness should be something that touches everyone in your organization, including the understanding that a data breach costs the business money – and your insurance provider expects you to raise your game to take a more proactive stance with security.

Even if you’ve put the effort into your cybersecurity, keeping it current and staying on top of all the threats can be daunting. With so many systems, endpoints and users, visibility is you biggest challenge, and understanding the threats, attack surfaces and vulnerabilities requires a great deal of time and resources, including skilled people.

That’s why you should turn to your managed service provider for guidance – they’ve got to contend with rising insurance premiums too and know that prevention is better than getting the cost of a ransomware attack covered. They already have visibility into your infrastructure and can help you put all the people, processes, and technology in place so you can qualify for cybersecurity insurance but hopefully never have to use it.