July 28, 2019 | By Greg Dougherty
Many organizations have plans for facing disasters both technological and natural, but very few seem to have ransomware recovery plans in place. Ransomware is the most nefarious form of malware, threatening governments and businesses across any given industry to date, and according to CNN, these malicious attacks are on the rise. Why? Because cybercriminals know that vulnerable businesses and organizations won’t hesitate to pay them exceptionally large sums of money to recover their most sensitive, critical data.
The Cost of Ransomware Attacks Continue to Grow
The news is flooded with stories of businesses and local governments being infected with ransomware and deciding it’s in their best interest to pay the ransom. Attackers know that governments and businesses tend to be ill-prepared for these cyberattacks and are willing to meet their demands, so the astronomical price tag on these ransom payments and the sophistication of the attacks have only increased as time goes on.
An article from ZDNet goes on to say that the average ransom demanded in early 2019 had nearly doubled from the end of 2018 to roughly $13,000 in just a few months’ time. If this trend continues, the average ransom demanded by the end of 2019 has the potential to reach nearly $100,000. Yep, that’s right, six figures. Imagine having to pay out $100,000 to cybercriminals for a single ransomware attack? Just think of what your business could do with $100,000. Rather than surrendering $100,000 to cybercriminals, you could invest that money in other parts of your business such as equipment and facility upgrades, expanding your workforce, and much more. As a business owner or manager, quite frankly, it’s painful to think about but incredibly eye-opening.
Ransomware: Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan Well-Equipped?
This decision made by businesses to pay tens of thousands, or even millions, of dollars in ransom for their data highlights a glaring trend among these businesses; ransomware recovery is simply not part of their disaster recovery plan (if they even have one at all). Surely these businesses have some form of backup strategy, but when staring down the barrel of the crypto locker gun, these businesses are forced into no-win scenarios if their disaster recovery plan can’t accommodate the realities of ransomware. Do they try to slowly recover their systems and data from old backups, wipe their infected machines and start from scratch, or do they pay the ransom in the hopes that it will actually decrypt their files in the interest of business continuity?
This is why having a disaster recovery plan inclusive of ransomware recovery is crucial for any business, ensuring a quick recovery from even the most crippling events while meeting recovery time (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). If you’ve ever been on the defensive side of a ransomware attack like I have, then you know the importance of having a disaster recovery plan that can meet today’s high availability demands. The ability to stop an infection from spreading, failing over production systems to replicas or restoring files from current working backups to keep business operations as unimpacted as possible is paramount, and it’s much easier to do with a solid plan.
A Solid Disaster Recovery Strategy Yields Confidence
A solid disaster recovery plan isn’t just about making sure you have backups or replicas of critical systems; a good disaster recovery plan should leave a business and its IT department feeling empowered and confident should they ever face something as potentially devastating as ransomware. Having confidence in your DRaaS solution and planning can mean the difference between a smooth, efficient, and quick recovery effort to one that’s chaotic.
Having a well-planned DR strategy that you have confidence in and control over can help eliminate much of the fear associated with potential disasters or ransomware attacks. Why? Because you know you have solid working backups, replication, and plans in place to combat such disasters and cyberattacks. Having such faith in your disaster recovery plan is crucial because, at the end of the day, fear is what ransomware attackers place their bets on.
Want to learn more about how Opti9 can help protect your business or organization from debilitating cyberattacks like ransomware? Send us a message at sales@opti9tech.com or give us a call at 1-866-932-2471 and speak to an expert today!