Ransomware backup protection: Ensure ransomware-free backups!

“Only five percent of a company’s folders are protected (Varonis).”
Just Imagine your business getting attacked with ransomware. You can rest assured that you can retrieve your data from backups within a few hours, but when your technical team sits down to restore the data, they find the backup is also encrypted. Now, there will be no resources from where you’ll get your data back. You are left with no option other than paying the ransom.

This hypothetical situation can become a reality where you won’t be able to restore data even if you’ve backup. So to reduce the chances of backup being encrypted you must understand everything about ransomware backup protection strategies.

What is meant by ransomware backup protection?

Ransomware backup protection involves strategy and tools to ensure backups are thoroughly secured against ransomware attacks. The disaster recovery plan that ensures the security of backups from ransomware is maintained in this approach.

Why do ransomware backup strategies fail?

Why do we use backups? Well, the simple answer to the question is that when a ransomware attack strikes on an organization encrypting its data; backups are used to restore data and get back to normal operations. But there’s no surety that these backups will help in restoring the data. Here why:

Attackers target backups
Attackers are smart enough to understand that if they attack any business, it’ll try to recover its data from backups. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, attackers often try to attack the backups and encrypt them. If the business has no resources to get its data; then pay the ransom.
Ineffective backups
How often do you check whether a backup is working or not? How often do you carry a backup security audit? Just imagine that your business hits a ransomware attack and a huge ransom is demanded. You are relaxed as you know you’ve backups of your data. But when you try to restore your data you find that your backups aren’t working. So what does this mean? You should ensure having regular and secure backups so that they work when needed the most.
No immediate recovery
Many business people feel that backups can provide immediate recovery of your data. But this isn’t the truth. Backups cannot be relied on for immediate recovery. The restoration process may require days, weeks, and even months for data recovery. Backups require this time because the organization may not exactly know which files to recover. Therefore, they perform system-wide restore which takes time and even the files may not be up-to-date.

Why do ransomware attackers target backups?

Ransomware attackers before implementing the attack try to encrypt backup. Well, backups are the only option to recover your lost data in case of any ransomware attack. But what if these backups are also encrypted? You won’t be able to get access to your data from any resource and you won’t have any option left instead of paying ransom. So to persuade you to pay ransom the attackers first try to encrypt backups and then attack the systems.

How does ransomware encrypts the backup?

Ransomware can encrypt backup in many different ways. It can encrypt backup in ways like email attachments, malicious links, drive-by downloads, RDP attacks, MSP tools, and other third-party software. Once it infects an endpoint, it spreads to any backups held on devices that are write-accessible via standard protocols, such as NAS devices, locally installed cloud services, and USB-connected devices. Below mentioned are the ways through which it can do this:

Spreading via the network:
Almost every business knows the importance of having backups. But many of them may not have the financial budget to take any backup services so they might transfer the files and the data into a hard disk or drive to ensure having a backup. The point is that local backups are important, but ineffective when used alone. Many ransomware types are capable of spreading to other computers on the network and mapped network drives. If the system gets infected, then there’s a fair chance that the ransomware will propagate across the network and encrypt the drive that has the backup.
Cloud storage syncing
Many cloud storage services like Dropbox, One Drive, and Google Drive automatically synchronize local files with cloud storage. If ransomware strikes into your devices then the files stored get encrypted and due to this the files stored in the cloud also get encrypted or deleted in the cloud. Some cloud storage services offer file versioning. This means that multiple copies of files are stored so that if one gets encrypted the other unencrypted version of the file can be referred. This feature isn’t provided by all service providers.
System restore points deletion
System restore helps in restoring the files. Many ransomware strains like Wannacry, cryptolocker, and Locky are designed to delete these systems and restore files with command-line commands. The copies are also accessible only through an operating system that will be affected.

What are ransomware backup best practices?

You must know how to create ransomware backup protection strategies. So the following are the best practices for creating ransomware backups:

Focus on the end
The most important goal of a backup is that it should be useful when needed. So focus on the end goal of having secure and restorable data backup and accordingly design the backup strategy.
Know your worst
You must know the worst-case scenario that is: Your business may be attacked by a ransomware attack or any other cyberattack at any moment. So accordingly you should be prepared. You must consider that your business will get attacked by ransomware and so you should accordingly plan your backup strategy. You should be ready with your weapons before the war to win it.
Ensure multi-pronged
You shouldn’t solely rely on backups. You should follow a multi-pronged approach. Ensure following more preventive approaches like having software that scans incoming emails for malicious attachments or security awareness training to get employees involved in keeping your organization safe.

What are ransomware backup strategies?

The following are the ways to ensure ransomware backup protection:

Have a proper ransomware disaster recovery plan.
Disaster recovery plans are the documents that outline how a business responds to anything that negatively impacts systems. A well-defined ransomware disaster recovery plan includes steps that will be followed to protect backups from ransomware. Address the following questions to design a full-proof disaster recovery plan:
a. Which data will be backed up?
Businesses have tons of data and backing up every data is time time-consuming process. That’s why know which data is necessary for your business and back up that data only.
b. How frequently will data be backed up?
Choosing the time interval for your data backup it’ll help you know how much data will be lost. Suppose you take a backup every 24hrs then the maximum amount of data that will be lost will be 24hrs if any mishap happens.
c. Where will data be stored?
To ensure ultimate security don’t rely on any one form of storage. Instead, have backup on-site and off-site.
d. How frequently will backups be tested?
Frequently testing backup security is important. You must ensure that your backups are ransomware-free at regular intervals so that they may be used when in need.
e. How will the data be secured?
Data should be backed up with comparable security controls.
Keep at least one backup offsite
The most effective way to protect backups is that they can’t be breached. If the backups are stored offsite then it can be ensured that ransomware won’t attack them.
Store backups in multiple locations
If you store backup on-site or off-site it is important to store it in multiple locations. If the backup is stored in multiple locations then if one of the backups gets encrypted you can have other backup locations to rely on for restoring your data.
Ensures backups at regular intervals
You should ensure backups at regular intervals. Choose intervals wisely. The right frequency to backup data is as frequent as possible. The interval of backup depends on your storage capacity, the systems you have, and the amount of data your business generates. If your business is small you can afford backup once a day. And if your business is huge then you may find more frequent backups that better support the business continuity goals.
Limit employee access to backups
Nobody’s intentions can be predicted. So giving access to trusted people is the smartest way to reduce human errors in compromising passwords.
Test backups
Testing backups regularly is important to ensure that your backups are ransomware-free. If your team can’t regularly test backups then outsource it to the backup service providers. They work in testing your data and ensuring it’s restorable whenever needed.
These are the ransomware backup protection strategies.

Conclusion

Having an unbeatable ransomware backup protection strategy is very important to ensure quick disaster recovery. Ransomware doesn’t inform and encrypts the backup data. Therefore, you should be ready with your ransomware backup protection strategies to stay secure and worry-free as you can rely on backups for data recovery.

Why choose DataGalaxy for your ransomware backup protection strategy?

DataGalaxy has provided data security services for 15 years. Our priority is to provide advanced data protection services. DataGalaxy provides 24×7 live support, result-oriented projects, and the best ROI techniques to ensure proper data security. Our expert professionals help protect data after a ransomware attack. We’ve 87 satisfied clients, have completed 150 projects, and have 28 accolades earned. Our priority is to provide data security for your business so you can rest assured and focus on growing your business.
Contact us today to have a good ransomware backup protection strategy.

FAQ's

1. What is meant by ransomware backup protection?

Technically, ransomware backup protection is an approach involving strategy and tools to ensure backups are thoroughly secured against ransomware attacks.

2. What are ransomware backup strategies?

The following are the ransomware backup strategies:

Have a proper ransomware disaster recovery plan.
Keep at least one backup offsite.
Store backups in multiple locations.
Ensures backups at regular intervals.
Limit employee access to backups.
Test backups.

3. What are ransomware backup best practices?