Ransomware attacks can be absolutely devastating to your business. Imagine logging into work one day and there’s nothing left to log into. It’s all just…gone. Locked up and held for ransom by some group of digital thieves.
What would you do if this happened to you? Would you have any choice but to pay up? And would that even work? You’d be placing your hope in the “upstanding citizens” that are already committing a crime against to suddenly become honest folks who give you your files back.
In other words, ransomware attacks can be existential threats to businesses like yours (any business that can’t operate without its data and/or digital systems).
The good news is there’s a tech-forward solution that can keep you safe, even if you do fall victim to an attack. The bad news? Most businesses don’t have that solution in place.
Here’s what you need to know about ransomware attacks and your best defense against them — something called immutable storage backup.
Your Business (Yes, Yours) Is At Risk of Ransomware Attacks
It’s always easy to assume that the internet criminals are going after big targets, and that your small business isn’t attractive enough, big enough, or valuable enough for them to go after it.
But that assumption is always a mistake. SMBs are at significant risk of ransomware attacks. In fact, in 2023, 85% of all ransomware attacks were aimed at small businesses, not big ones.
While there’s no real way to calculate how likely an attack on your business is in any given year, we think it’s worth mentioning that you’re the exact kind of target scammers are looking for.
Why? Well, small businesses are less likely to be prepared for this kind of attack. And that makes them more likely to pay up — because they don’t have any other way to get their data back and keep their business alive.
Regular Backups Are Good, But Not Immune
You might be thinking: “Sure, but I’m not worried. We already back up our systems and data, so if we get ransomware’d we’ll just restore from our backups and keep moving forward.”
That’s a good plan, truly. A business with a backup in place is in far less danger than a business with no backup strategy at all.
Unfortunately, having a backup doesn’t necessarily make you immune to ransomware threats. The bad guys know that a backup would save you, so they target those, too. Typically once they gain access to your systems, they hang out for a while, looking for a way into other systems (like your backups). If they’re patient enough, they can wait until their attack will ensnare both your main systems and their backups.
We know, not great.
Thankfully, there’s another backup solution that really is immune.
The Solution: Immutable Backup Storage
Immutable backup storage is a specific type of backup. Once you write data to this kind of backup, that data is immutable (a fancy word for “cannot change or be changed”). No one can edit, delete, overwrite, or lock you out of this data. Not even you or an admin!
As long as you maintain control of your secure access method, the bad guys can’t mess with or access your immutable backup storage. But if and when you need to recover systems using that data, you can.
Immutable backup storage is a little more expensive than standard cloud backups. But for many businesses, the price tag is worth it.
Got questions about your backup and disaster recovery strategy, or your ransomware response plan? Ready to make the switch to immutable backup? We can help. Call or email anytime.