{"id":2576,"date":"2020-04-23T21:16:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T17:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2025-04-16T15:43:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T11:43:30","slug":"ransomware-dont-let-backups-be-the-back-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/ransomware-dont-let-backups-be-the-back-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware: Don\u2019t let backups be the back door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Rick Vanover, Senior Director, Product Strategy, Veeam<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The damage ransomware can inflict on businesses is staggering. For businesses who feel they have no choice but to pay cybercriminals in order to unlock their files, they not only put their money at risk, but also put their reputation at stake. According to a report produced by Cybersecurity Ventures, global ransomware damage costs are predicted to cost upwards of $20 billion in 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the best remedy for a ransomware attack is\nprevention, in the prevailing threat landscape that isn\u2019t always possible. The\nsame Cybersecurity Ventures study forecasts that an organization will fall\nvictim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2021. Ultimately, almost all\ncomputer systems are fallible to breach. So, businesses must be prepared for\nthe reality of relentless cyber-attacks and have a contingency plan in place\nshould the worst happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having offsite and offline backups and robust disaster recovery\ncapabilities can help businesses restore data that has been encrypted by\nattackers. However, the risks and possibilities of ransomware are varied. So,\nbusinesses need a plan for prevention and ensure their backup data cannot be\nused against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat landscape is evolving<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a growing amount of fragmentation in the types of\nransomware attacks in play today. Chief Security Officers (CSOs) mainly\nassociate ransomware with data encryption. This involves malicious agents\ngaining access to sensitive or mission-critical data and encrypting it. The\n\u2018deal\u2019 in this scenario is the business pays a ransom in exchange for files to\nbe decrypted and returned to their original, usable form. This is by no means\nthe only threat for CSOs to consider. In other cases, cyber-attackers will upload\ndata instead of encrypting it. This means the ransom is to prevent a public\nleak of potentially sensitive data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These disguises and behaviours make it very difficult to consistently\ndefend against the widening landscape of threats. The golden rule for\norganizations to follow is to maintain a clear view of what is normal behaviour\nwithin their own IT infrastructure. This can be achieved through continuously\nmonitoring data and cloud storage, as well as leverage analytics on networks,\noperating systems and applications. This increased awareness of what a secure\nstate of play looks like can make suspicious and malicious activity easier to\nspot, crucially accelerating time to response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making good use of encryption is also key for organizations. If\nmalicious threats cannot \u2018see\u2019 your data, it\u2019s more difficult for them to use\nit against you. According to Duo\u2019s Privacy in the Internet Trends report, <\/em>87%\nof web traffic is encrypted<\/a> \u2013\na number that is rising all the time. However, it is less clear what percentage\nof enterprises\u2019 data is encrypted. Zscaler\u2019s IoT in the Enterprise <\/em>found\nthat 91.5%\nof traffic on enterprise IoT networks is non-SSL encrypted<\/a>. These contrasting figures suggest there is a sizable gap between\nhow enterprises generally are leveraging encryption versus major web platforms\nand service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are backups cyber-crime\u2019s high-value target?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area where encryption is vital to\nbolster organizations\u2019 defences against ransomware and insider threats is\nimplementing \u2018nearline\u2019 encryption on data backups. The Veeam 2019 Cloud Data\nManagement report found that over two thirds\nof organizations are producing backups of their data<\/a>. While this is, of course, a good thing, imagine\nthe blackmail potential for a cyber-attacker of gaining access to a backup of\nan organization\u2019s entire digital infrastructure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that cyber-criminals using ransomware to\nblackmail businesses are looking for data, in theory they can find whatever\nthey need in an organization\u2019s backed up files. These could be in all manner of\nforms: from system disks and removable hard drives, to offline tape devices and\ncloud backups. Whichever option a business\nchooses, the backup repository itself must be protected against attack with an\nultra-resilient media type. Otherwise, there\u2019s a chance that in attempting to\nprotect business continuity, businesses may be creating a trove of poorly\nprotected data that could be used against them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\n<\/em>For some threat behaviours, this can be mitigated by encrypting\nbackups every step of the way \u2013 from the first disk resource on-premises.\nEncrypting backups historically is a great idea when tapes leave the IT\nfacility or if data is transmitted over the Internet. Given the prevalence of modern\ncyber-threats, encryption must take place nearer to the backing up process. The\nmost effective technique however is resiliency in the backup data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Securing data backups<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings us to a conversation around ultra-resilient backup\nstorage \u2013 the single most effective form of storage to be resilient against\nransomware. There are a number of ways organizations can achieve this level of\nprotection to ensure their data backups do not resemble a back door for\ncyber-attackers.
\n
\nThe first is utilising offline tapes, which are a very effective air-gapped form\nof backup media. While tape is often purported to be an old-fashioned and\ninefficient storage technology, it cannot be beaten when it comes to producing\nhighly portable, secure and reliable backups at low-cost. Much like tape, removable\ndrives have an offline element in that they are not online unless being\nread-from or written-to. This makes them a preferable option when it comes to\nreducing the visibility of backed up files to malicious agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immutable backups in the cloud, such as AWS S3 storage\u2019s\ncompliance mode for object lock, supported by Veeam, mean backup data stored in\nthe cloud cannot be deleted by ransomware, malicious administrators or even accidentally.\nThis is available in the public AWS S3 offering as well as a number of\nS3-Compatible storage systems (both on-premises and as a public offering).\nFurthermore, Veeam Cloud Connect<\/a> offers protection through a capability where copies of backup\ndata can be kept completely out of bounds for customers. This is delivered through\na service provider and helps end-users protect against ransomware, insider\nthreats and accidental deletion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSOs are constantly weighing up a trade-off between convenience\nand security. While enterprises undergoing digital transformation have multiple\ninvestment needs, protecting against ransomware is critical to ensuring\nbusiness continuity. Offsite and offline backups can help mitigate the effects\nof ransomware. Combined with the right security solutions and employee\ntraining, ultra-resilient backup for Cloud Data\nManagement<\/a> can give organizations peace\nof mind that they are as protected as they can possibly be even in this\nevolving threat landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having offsite and offline backups and robust disaster recovery capabilities can help businesses restore data that has been encrypted by attackers. However, the risks and possibilities of ransomware are varied. So, businesses need a plan for prevention and ensure their backup data cannot be used against them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9618],"tags":[1197,698,518,801,694],"contributor":[],"class_list":["post-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-pick","tag-backup","tag-cloud_data_management","tag-cyber_security","tag-ransomware","tag-veeam_software"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/rick-vanover-3-e1587661994879.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Rabab","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/rabab\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}