DE 
It’s not a question of if, but when!
Ransomware attacks have become one of the most significant cybersecurity threats to organizations worldwide. These attacks can cause significant damage by encrypting critical data and demanding payment in exchange for a decryption key. In many cases, organizations have to pay the ransom to recover their data, leading to significant financial losses.
One of the key challenges in dealing with ransomware attacks is ensuring that organizations have a reliable and valid backup copy of their data that can be used to restore their systems. However, in many cases, backup data can also be compromised, either due to insufficient security measures or by the ransomware attack itself.
Without a valid backup, organizations may be left with no choice but to pay the ransom, putting their data and finances at risk. To address this problem, organizations need a reliable and secure backup and recovery solution that can help protect their data from ransomware attacks.
Backup as smart countermeasure.
The foundation is always a suitable strategy and architecture. Since I do not want to overstretch this article, I will go into these aspects deeper in another article. The important thing is that the strategy must be closely aligned with the business and include, for example, valences of the workloads to be protected.
Back to topic: To protect backup data from ransomware attacks, organizations need a multi-layered backup and recovery strategy that includes several measures. One such measure is to use an air-gapped backup system, where backup data is kept in a separate, isolated environment that is not connected to the production network.
This approach helps to ensure that the backup data remains safe from any ransomware attacks that may infect the production network. Additionally, organizations can use a tamper-evident backup system that uses immutable backups to prevent any unauthorized changes to the backup data.
Another measure is to use a backup and recovery solution that includes a verification process to ensure that backup data is recoverable and free from malware or ransomware infections. This process helps to ensure that organizations can quickly restore their systems and data in the event of a ransomware attack, minimizing downtime and financial losses.
Suitable tools
We often use Veeam in the design of our solutions and have had consistently good experiences so far. Of course, critics can now say that software from Veeam is very common and thus a worthwhile target for the search for attack vectors, but I personally consider the technical advantages of Veeam to be predominant. The company offers a range of features, including “SureBackup” and the “Hardened Linux Repository”, that can be used to create a multi-layered backup and recovery strategy.
SureBackup is a feature that allows organizations to test and verify the recoverability of their backup data, ensuring that they have a valid and uncorrupted backup copy that can be used to restore critical data and systems in the event of an attack. Veeam Hardened Linux Repository is another feature that provides an additional layer of security to the backup repository by leveraging a secure, locked-down Linux appliance to store and manage the backup data.
These features help organizations create an air-gapped backup solution that is isolated from the production environment, making it less susceptible to ransomware attacks. When combined with Veeam’s verification process, organizations can ensure that their backup data is recoverable and free from any malware or ransomware infections.
In conclusion, ransomware attacks pose a significant threat to organizations worldwide, and the key to mitigating this threat is to have a reliable and secure backup and recovery solution in place. By using Veeam’s backup and recovery features, organizations can create a multi-layered backup and recovery strategy that helps protect their data from ransomware attacks and ensures that they can quickly restore their systems and data in the event of an attack.
