Start Your New Year Fresh Protect Your Data with Backup & DR

New year is just around the corner and before we jump into the new year, it is important to look at all the data loss incidents that occurred this year. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of ransomware attacks and experts predict that the number of these attacks would most likely increase in the coming year so it is best to include backup and DR in your new year’s resolution.

2019-A Year of Ransomware Attacks

2019 was supposed to be the year in which ransomware attacks would start to decrease but sadly this was not the case. Reportedly, 7.2 billion malware attacks were launched in 2019 as well as about 151.9 million ransomware attacks. This is a significant increase in ransomware attacks from the previous year and these numbers are only expected to grow in the coming year.

Get Ransomware Protection- Backup Your Data

There is no doubt that ransomware attacks would most likely increase in the coming year and without any ransomware protection, it is impossible to recover from these attacks. If your data is very important to you, which it most probably is, and you still do not have any ransomware protection, then backing up your data should be your topmost priority in 2020.

When there is ransomware, there is always a risk of data loss. Even without the element of ransomware, data loss is always a probability. If you do not want to lose your mission-critical data, then backing it up to the cloud is the right choice. Veeam backup to Azure can be used to back up data.

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Backups would enable you to back up your data to the cloud, in a safe location so that you know that even if you are hit with a ransomware attack, you can be at peace with your mind that your data is safe and ready to be recovered whenever needed.

Disaster recovery can help greatly in making sure that your Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) are as low as possible so that you can recover your data in a matter of minutes and suffer downtime as low as less than 15 minutes.

This little to none downtime is made possible due to the ability to directly spin up VMs to the backup appliance and this feature is offered by none other than StoneFly in their backup and disaster recovery appliances.

 To Sum Up

Ransomware is a huge threat and it will only get worse in the coming years. It is best to get a backup and disaster recovery solution today so that you can start your new year on a high note without having to worry about the protection of your data.

Ransomware Attack at Security Company Prosegur

Ransomware has struck again and this time it is a private security giant, Prosegur. Prosegur has become the latest victim of ransomware. This shows how still many companies are unprepared and still have no backup and ransomware protection at all. 

Without Backup & DR, Even the Strongest Security Company Can Become Vulnerable

The Spanish company, which produces building alarms and offers physical security services like cash transit vans, has over 60,000 employees all over the world. It is a very successful company with profits of $130M reported for the first ninth months of 2019.

The company used its Twitter account on Wednesday to post a statement claiming that they had been struck by the Ryuk variant. They added that they had enabled maximum security measures to prevent the spread of malware which unfortunately also included the restriction of all communications.

Prosegur appears to be in a mess and is struggling to get out of it. The attack was severe and the company’s website was taken offline in various regions.

The attack impacted the company greatly as hours after the attack, customers have been reported saying that the alarms were not working and new customers were even asking for refunds. This would dent the reputation of the company greatly as it is a security company, providing security services.

The Company has appeared to have ‘Recovered’ from the Attack

In a statement, released on Thursday, the company said that they had fully contained the attack and that the company have started the process of recovering data and started restoring its services slowly.

The company has also said that they have started an investigation and will get to the bottom of how the attack happened so that they can identify the vulnerabilities and improve them for the future.

Achieve Ransomware Protection with Backup & Disaster Recovery

It is not clear whether the company paid the ransom or restored from backups but one thing is clear that whatever it was, they suffered a lot of downtimes, even if they actually did restore from backups.

A good backup and disaster recovery solution or a backup and disaster recovery appliance can help greatly in protecting against ransomware. Apart from this, there are many data services that ensure that the company suffers little to no downtime.

There are many vendors who offer backup and disaster recovery solutions like Dell, Nutanix, Unitrends, etc. but there is one, StoneFly, who offers a unique feature that allows companies to spin up VMs directly onto the backup appliance. This helps greatly in reducing the RTOs and RPOs to less than 15 minutes which ensures that a company does not suffer any downtime whatsoever.

Conclusion

Ransomware has been in the news a lot lately and it seems like there is no stopping it. These attacks are not going to stop anytime soon and without any protection, it is impossible to recover from them. A good and efficient Backup and DR appliance helps greatly in protecting against ransomware attacks and helps recover data in a matter of minutes.

Disaster Recovery Testing-Key to a successful DR

Disasters can occur at any time and at any place and can be very cruel. Having a disaster recovery plan sure can help an enterprise in protecting their data but in order for it to do that, it needs to work first. The only way to know for sure that your disaster recovery plan will actually work is to test it, regularly.

Exactly How is Testing Important for an Enterprise

So much emphasis is made on building a disaster recovery plan but enterprises often forget that they actually need to make sure that their DR plan works or not.

An untested plan is just a set of steps in which some things might work and some might not. In order to ensure efficiency, all the steps of a DR plan should work. So, testing your DR backup plan is as important as setting up one.

Decide What Needs to be Tested

Testing a DR plan maybe simple or a bit complex, depending on your system. If there is only a single testing, then it may be quite simple rather than a multi-tiered system. Depending upon the criticality of your system, you need to test the plan accordingly.

Testing Frequency

Having talked about the importance of a DR plan testing it is also important to know the frequency of the tests performed on it.

The testing frequency should be based on how often your plan changes. If it changes a lot, then it should also be testing a lot frequently. If not so much, then it’s okay to test it only once a while.

To emphasize more on this, workloads or systems that don’t change at all only need to be tested maybe once a year, while workloads that tend to change a lot need to be regularly tested throughout the year.

More Efficient Disaster Recovery

Testing your DR plan enables you to identify any errors or issues encountered while recovering your data. This helps greatly as it pin-points exactly what the issue is and allows you to resolve it so that, at the time of actually needed recovery, there are no issues and all your files and systems are recovered, easily and efficiently.

Conclusion

Testing your DR plan is undoubtedly a very vital part of any DR backup plan. It can help greatly in identifying the issues or problems you might face while recovering your files and gives you an idea of whether your DR backup plan works or not. To ensure a more efficient DR backup plan, make sure you test your plan regularly. veeam cloud connect azure is also good for doing data backups.