Cyber-security professionals and organisations such as the National Cyber-security and Communications Integration Centre (NCCIC) have observed an increase in ransomware attacks which is showing no signs of slowing.
In 2017 there was a global increase in ransomware attacks by 350%.
There are four common ways that ransomware can gain access to systems:
In today’s connected age organisations’ networks are more vulnerable than ever. This is particularly true when staff work on their own mobile devices, wearables and personal drives.
If a ransomware attack cannot be prevented, recovering from it remains the only option. Without an isolated, up-to-date backup of data, your IT systems will have no previous working state to revert to and your organisation will have no choice but to pay up in the hope of access being restored or accept that the data is lost forever.
With Redstor, data can be recovered in a few clicks and the need to pay a ransom is negated.
Counting the cost of ransomware
In the event of an attack, it might seem easiest to just pay the ransom. Sadly, this isn’t always effective and is not recommended. Not all ransomware behaves as expected. The decryption might fail or a second higher ransom fee might be demanded, resulting in your organisation losing more than just the ransom money. In addition, there’s nothing to stop cyber-attackers encrypting systems again with ransomware knowing that the ransom will be paid.
Loss of revenue and the reputational damage caused by delayed operations and service delivery, not to mention lost data, could be irreparable.
Protecting against ransomware is your first line of defence. Unfortunately, ransomware protection is not always effective. Malware is continually evolving, and anti-virus/anti-malware software is struggling to keep up. Once an infection has occurred, removing the ransomware is highly unlikely.
Redstor gives the ability to recover all data and systems to a state before a ransomware infection took hold, negating the effects of ransomware and the need to pay a ransom. Recover from a ransomware attack and avoid the need to invoke a full disaster recovery scenario.
