Using immutable cloud backup to keep ransomware attacks at bay

We have been warned severally about ransomware attacks; these are not mere warnings, the threat is real. It is now not a question of IF it happens, but rather WHEN.

Statistics lay it bare; in the United States, ransomware attacks were 185% more in 2021 than in the previous year. The attacks seriously hurt businesses with fifty per cent admitting that the security measures they had taken did not offer adequate protection. It even gets scarier, the amount of ransom paid went up by 171% and only 8% of the victims got all their data back even after paying a huge ransom.

If these statistics are anything to go by, the losses attributed to ransomware attacks are huge and they can affect almost any individual or business. We are not laying bare these statistics to scare anyone, but rather want to present the situation as it is and highlight the issues that have led to individuals and businesses spending a lot of money and not forgetting the pains they have gone through due to loss of data.

However, all is not lost as there are measures that can be taken to ensure that these losses are avoided. That is, there is a solution to ensure that data is kept safe and secure.

Right backup strategy

The first step towards protecting your data from malicious attacks is establishing a process for backing it up. Have a proper strategy that will prevent cybercriminals from accessing your backup. While doing this, ensure that the system you are creating does not have any corrupt data.

Adopting the golden backup rule, that is the 3-2-1 rule (or 3-2-1-1-0 rule – that is 3 copies of your data, 2 different media, at least 1 of the copies at an offsite location, at least 1 of the copies offline and be sure to have verified backups without errors), will further ensure that the protection levels are improved. The golden backup rule requires maintaining at least three copies of data, where one is primary and two are backups. It also demands that the copies be stored in at least two types of storage media; it can be a local drive, tape drive, or any other. You should store one of the copies offsite, in the cloud. In addition to the 3-2-1 rule, some cloud storage experts have recommended that at least the copy which is stored offline, ought to be immutable as well as ensure that you have verified backups, and have no errors.

Immutability protocol

Even after following the backup golden 3-2-1 rule and strengthening it with additional strategies, you should guarantee the integrity of the datasets by instituting the immutability protocol.

With immutable cloud backup, you are assured of an additional security layer where your data is protected from being deleted or altered. It ensures that your data cannot be changed for a period of time, even by yourself as per the immutability policy that you have selected. Storing a backup as an immutable object, the immutability policy is what states when it can be altered or removed. With such features, your data is protected from accidental deletion as well as kept the attackers away, as they neither encrypt the backup nor hold it hostage.

We can avoid the losses that come with ransomware attacks by taking measures to protect our data. Immutable cloud backup can be one step towards achieving this.

If you’re interested in immutable cloud backup please contact us on +44 (0)808 9000 247 or baas@peasoup.cloud.