“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ransomware Attack?

Those smug cyber criminals are demanding you pay the ransom, but little do they know, you can just restore everything from backup and ignore them. Right? You didn't keep those backups on the same network? You didn't put all of your eggs all in the same basket, did you?

If your backups are stored on the same network, you may be in trouble!

Cyber criminals are sneaky..

If you have suffered a ransomware attack, it likely means the criminals have been on your network for a while, sizing things up.

This means they would be watching your backup process - what backups you take, where you store them, and at what times (amongst a lot of other things).

They will then make sure they have access to these backups (this is a lot easier for them if your backups are kept on the same network).

When they decide to attack, they will make sure your business has no backups to turn to and no option other than to pay their ransom.

Ok, so if I keep my backups on another network or location, I am covered, right?

Well, no, not exactly. As we alluded to above, cyber criminals will usually be on your network for some time before they initiate their attack. This means you could have compromised systems running back for a while. All stored in your backups.

You have more than 30 days of backups, right? If not, you could be restoring your systems to a compromised state!

Clearly, backup retention is key here. Your backups need to run back longer than the criminals have persisted in your network. We recommend at least 6 months' worth of backups, however the longer the better.

My backups go back far enough. I think I'm good.

If your backups are offsite (or immutable) and running back a fair time (6 months or more), you'd think you are covered. You may well be, but without regular testing you may be relying on faulty backup data and be in for a nasty surprise the day you need them the most.

This is why we recommend your business has a proper BCDR (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery) plan, which involves regular backup testing and at least annual DR (Disaster Recovery) testing.

I might need some help with this..

If you aren't sure if your business has enough cover in place, or need help with your BCDR plan, reach out to us and we can book in a chat to support you at a convenient time.