Here we go again. Friday, a ransomware attack hit the England’s National Health Care System. And according to sources they are paying! Once again we are rewarding bad behavior. The only way to end ransomware is to dry up its funding, the ransom dollars. The only way to make sure organizations don’t pay ransom is to make sure that they can’t lose data. The good news is that we have the technology!
What’s the Ransomware Cure?
Unlike most diseases, the cure is not prevention. The cure is countermeasures. Certainly organizations should do their best to train employees not to fall into the ransomware trap. But those organizations need to realize that at some point someone is going to make a mistake and click on the wrong link, setting the ransomware loose on the organization.
Countermeasures are key. The problem is that what most IT professionals consider to be their ransomware countermeasure, backup, is simply not up to the task at hand. Protection needs to be real-time and it needs to, itself, be protected.
The other problem with ransomware is that infects a huge cross section of the organization. Meaning recovery, even recovery with a real-time backup of data, will take a very long time. There is simply a lot of data to replace. Instead, organizations need to look for ways to start operations from the protected copy, and not be forced to replace all the encrypted data.
To learn more about Ransomware check out these articles, videos and webinars:
ChalkTalk Video: How Can Object Storage Solve The Ransomware Problem?
Can DRaaS Protect you from Ransomware?
Backups and Users are Enabling Ransomware Success
How and Why to Protect Against Ransomware
StorageSwiss Take
IT can defeat Ransomware. We have the technology and it is well within the reach of any organization small or large. But it takes focus to make sure you are ready and practice to make sure you can replace corrupted data quickly.