"Prevention is better than cure,” but recovery is better than blackmail. Despite the best efforts of so many organisations to implement good quality security software and processes, ransomware is an increasingly prevalent concern.
The average ransom demanded now stands at $679 per user, with almost half of attacks affecting 20 or more users per organisation. The FBI reports ransoms as high as $5,000 per user, so the cost quickly mounts, and yet the ransom itself and payment of it is the least of the problem. 19% of those who paid the ransom still didn't get access to their data back again with little support from the traditional authorities.
Internal and external impact of ransomware is widespread from the first impacted users, through those who are reliant on them within the company, IT teams tasked with the clean-up, wider productivity as systems and data become unavailable and further, to external audiences: customers, suppliers, broader perception in the market and so on.
In terms of backup, mitigating the risk is simple:
- Take a regular backup of important data and applications
- Ensure that backup data cannot be reached and infected
- Test backup data frequently to ensure recoverability
Some Backup Exec next steps:
- Think about Recovery Point Objectives: how far back is a good backup? How far back can you go if you hadn’t realised there was a problem?
- Identify systems, applications and data the business can’t do without. Is it “offline secure?”
- Try it. See how much easier Backup Exec makes protecting yourself from the impact of Ransomware. www.backupexec.com/TryBE
