3 Tips to Combat the Recent Ransomware Surge

Ransomware threats are surging, and so is the price tag. And as bad actors increase their efforts, no one is immune – no matter their industry or maturity of their business.

From tech, to healthcare, to retail, the recent spike in ransomware attacks are touching industries and markets far and wide. And, unfortunately, as bad actors encrypt valuable consumer, operational, and financial information, many businesses are being forced to pay lofty ransoms to access their data. And the deeper the pockets, the heftier the payout. Some institutions have cited multi-million dollar demands to retrieve their own data – being forced to pay up just to keep their businesses running.

With recent government agencies warning of the imminent and continued ransomware attacks on healthcare and other industries, what can you do to protect your business? Here are three keys to help keep your data safe and sound in the face of a ransomware attack:

Anomaly Detection

Ransomware often masks itself as a legitimate file or communication when entering a system, then rapidly encrypts business data, rendering it useless. Modern tools, like anomaly detection, can provide AI-powered capabilities that detect suspicious activity before ransomware can successfully penetrate your data. By recognizing and monitoring files – anomaly detection can spot abnormal file access patterns and provide notices, flagging threats to both administrators and users.

Data Immutability

Air-gapped, immutable data copies can provide a safety valve for businesses experiencing ransomware attempts. While malicious attacks can encrypt business data – separate data backups provide a pristine copy of your data that cannot be altered, modified, or deleted. By ensuring your backups are immutable, you can effectively isolate copies of your data for restoration should you ever experience a breach.

Rapid Recovery

While data isolation keeps your data safe – having tools to efficiently restore that data is key in delivering a high level of business continuity. Recovering from attack requires robust capabilities that enable your business to rapidly restore data to your users. Compression and deduplication, granular search, and flexible recovery options ensure retained data can be promptly restored to users, eliminating costly downtime and helping meet recovery SLAs.

As ransomware attacks continue to disrupt businesses, an effective and well-rounded strategy can ensure your data (and your business) is not at risk. For more information on ransomware protection check out our recent blog and learn how a multi-layered approach with Metallic SaaS can help keep data safe from malicious attack.