Organisations today are exposed to a daily barrage of cyberattacks. Some high-profile targets like banks are subjected to literally billions of attacks every day. Contrary to the belief that the situation is slowly easing, as companies take ransomware more seriously and take appropriate measures, the numbers speak against that. The threat is constantly growing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to protect against all attacks. Cybercriminals simply seem to be several steps ahead of cybersecurity at all times. To improve the situation there are numerous technological measures available that can help organizations significantly improve their resistance to ransomware – including the last line of defense, an isolated cyber vault.
Senior Technology Evangelist at Zerto.
Cybercriminals are two steps ahead of IT security
Supported by modern AI tools from the dark web, attackers are producing more, faster, and higher-quality attacks. AI tools help criminals on numerous levels and make their work far easier. The tools help to identify vulnerabilities, create malware, and automatically generate attacks. This allows attacks to be planned, created, and executed that can successfully evade detection by conventional security tools. And, in conjunction, cybercriminals are also aggressively attacking backup and disaster recovery systems to block the data recovery process. Overall, this significantly increases the risk posed by ransomware and puts IT security teams under enormous pressure. The pace of technological progress in the ransomware ecosystem is significantly faster than that of IT security and its defense methods. But, even though cyber criminals might be ahead of their targets, there are many tactics that can help IT security mitigate the risk.
The most effective methods to increase resilience
As with most things, in the world of cybersecurity, prevention is better than cure; in other words, the best strategy is to avoid becoming a victim in the first place. Although ransomware is getting better and better, there are numerous strategies to help mitigate the risk. One possibility is the early detection of ransomware. Real-time detection solutions are already available and continuously scan the infrastructure for suspicious activity. If the software recognizes active encryption in the network, it sounds the alarm in real-time. This reduces the amount of encrypted data, shortens the time it takes to react, and therefore greatly minimizes the consequences of ransomware. Analytics that can determine the origin, method, and exact nature of an attack also help to mitigate the consequences and quickly help to return to normal operation quickly.
Backups alone are not enough
It is a truism that there is no 100 per cent protection against ransomware. Accordingly, it is important to strengthen the resilience of the infrastructure so that the consequences of ransomware are minimized, and organizations can recover from a successful attack quickly and without major damage. However, backups alone cannot accomplish that. For one thing, backups are increasingly being attacked alongside primary data so that companies cannot restore their data easily. And secondly, it can take weeks to restore all critical data and applications. Backups may be sufficient for securing less significant data across the board. However, companies need more modern recovery tools to adequately protect the most critical applications. Modern DR platforms based on Continuous Data Protection (CDP) offer the recovery of complex applications in a matter of seconds with minimal data loss. The highest level of data protection beyond backups and CDP that is ideal for securing the most important company data are cyber vaults. Cyber vaults are isolated via airgap, offer physical protection against malware, and go beyond already existing air-gapped solutions, like air-gapped backups. These sophisticated appliances can offer further features at the software level that increase protection, such as data immutability, real-time encryption detection, and a clean room for secure recovery.
Conclusion: Multi-layered protection against ransomware increases resilience
To effectively protect themselves against the daily deluge of literally billions of ransomware attacks and the consequences of a successful breach, organizations require a multi-layered defense. Backups are necessary for the mass of data, and with the right backup strategy, almost all data can be restored at some point. However, more importantly, active production data requires special protection, as the damage caused by encryption and unavailability can be astronomical. Advanced DR platforms offer the recovery of complete applications with minimal downtime and data loss. And for the crown jewels, the most important company data, the highest level of protection is available: an isolated cyber vault with immutability and a clean room for recovery. Even though the threat of ransomware is constantly becoming bigger, companies can use a multi-layered tactic including new cyber vaults to ensure that their data is as secure as possible. This way, their company can recover from an attack quickly and without serious consequences, even if the worst-case scenario comes to pass.
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