Ransomware Recovery Strategy - Implementation and Tips

Discover the best strategies for protecting your business from ransomware attacks and learn how to implement an effective recovery plan. Slik Protect's ransomware recovery solutions help safeguard your data and ensure business continuity

Ransomware attacks (where hackers hold data hostage in exchange for money) have recently made headlines. The 2021 Data Breach Analysis by IBM estimates that ransomware attacks will continue to rise in frequency and cost, making it the most expensive type of data breach. An average ransomware attack costs over $4.62 million. These expenses do not include the ransom price but the escalation, notification, lost business, and response expenses that resulted from the incident.

Since 2021, ransomware has become a US national security concern. Ransomware victims paid about$1.4 billion in requests for paymentover the last year In the United States alone. When protecting your business and its data, havinga secure cloud service provider that takes ransomware seriouslycan make a huge difference.

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Tips to Protect Data from Ransomware

1. Assign Permissions based on User-RolesSome data is high-risk and should not be accessible to every employee. Firms need to use RBAC (an abbreviation forrole-based access control), so users are only given appropriate access and privileges to systems necessary to carry out their tasks.
2. Maintain a Backup of your DataNo matter their size, every enterprise (across industries) should make it their top priority to reinforce defenses against cyberattacks. If a business hasa solid backup systemfor its most crucial files, even a ransomware attack may not result in total data loss. Risks can be mitigated by redundant and immutable backups, on local and cloud-based storage systems.
3. Update your SoftwareInstalling the latest software on the system reduces the chance of ransomware and other malware/phishing attempts. While updating the software, there are two things that should be noted:

• Changelogs: While these updates (also known as "What's new?" documents) might be a pain to wade through, they are a vital source of information because they outline the developer's efforts to fix security issues and mitigate vulnerabilities.
• Verify the source of updates: All the software you use must come from reliable sources and have the most recent updates. When updating, make sure you get the latest security fixes. This reduces the likelihood that cyberattacks will be able to exploit loopholes in your system.

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1. Avoid Opening Suspicious AttachmentsIf you receive an email with an attachment, be careful of:

• The sender: Check the sender's address before opening the file (verify the email address by double-checking the domain name. Don't just rely on the sender's name alone.
• The attachment: Beware of files that automatically launch applications (like executable or dynamic link libraries (DLL) which pose the greatest risk). It's recommended to save attachments to a folder that can be scanned with an antivirus tool before opening.

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How to Recover Data from Ransomware Encryption

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Restore Files from Backup

If your files get encrypted because of a ransomware attack, you should check if you have backups that can be restored or not.

• In case of backups saved in the cloud: Yourdata should be safesince the backups wouldn’t have been exposed when the attack occurred.
• In case of backups on your local device: Most on-premises data could have beenintentionally wiped, stolen, or encryptedby the ransomware. Make it a point to check before you attempt data recovery from these backups.

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Recreate Data from Other Sources

Even when ransomware has encrypted your files, there are several other sources through which you might be able to recover the data. These sources are listed below.

• When your systems are in good shape and you have backup copies of your data, you can recreate the data by entering it by hand from the paper copies you kept.
• Data may be pieced together from email conversations, a great way to salvage some of the data from email attachments you may have lost.
• Sometimes ransomware will encrypt a portion of a database or backup file, allowing you to salvage usable information by mining the remaining unencrypted data.

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Using Ransomware Decryption Tools

Security researchers have occasionally been successful in decrypting ransomware encryptions, although this is a very unusual occurrence. You should make every effort tostay away from paying a ransomif at all possible.

The malware itself may have vulnerabilities, or the encryption could have security flaws. Decryptors for previously cracked ransomware are alsoavailable for downloadat no cost.

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Develop a Ransomware Recovery Strategy

A key component of any good response strategy is a list of immediate actions to take during a crisis. The aim is to bring an attack under control rapidly. If you assume that the attack may have already encrypted data, it is essential to have a strategy for reliablyrecovering data from backups. The longer you delay, the worse the disruption will be.

If you’ve been the victim of a ransomware attack, then understanding how your data was encrypted in the first place should help you devise a plan for future attacks and recovery.

A general recovery plan should have steps that help you to:

• Create a plan of action. This plan should outline the steps to be taken in the event of an attack, including removing vulnerable servers and suspending essential systems.
• Offer instructions on how to get in touch with leadership and the authorities.
• Figure out if you have backups for foundational data, most critical, and recent data.
• Get your systems back online as soon as possible if you have secure backups.

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Classify the Data Stored

Modern-day cyber criminals seek high payouts by threatening to disclose stolen data like:

• Confidential information that could be used by competitors.
• Private correspondence with the potential to shame senior executives or damage the organization's reputation.
• If disclosed, sensitive information could put a business at risk of legal action or regulatory penalties, like customers' credit card numbers.

Classifying your data helps you know which data is high-risk and which isn’t. An example of high-risk data: data that belongs to another party (for example, a business partner). In this case, the data should be stored in the most secure way, when compared to say, sales lead generation data (which is of lesser importance).

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Backup Data to the Cloud

As mentioned earlier, it’s possible to have backups stored locally, or on old-school hard drives. However, this method is notoriously slow, and hard drives degrade over time, so data isn’t really safe.

Recovery against ransomware cannot be accomplished merely with [disaster recovery (DR)

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Secure your Enterprise Cloud

Storing backups on the cloud and air-gapping them doesn’t make your data hacker-proof. Hackers have begun creating tools designed to breach popular cloud-based OSes and APIs in response to protective measures. According to theThreat Intelligence Indexfindings, nearly a quarter of security incidents are caused by threat actors moving their attacks from on-premises networks to cloud-based systems.

As an enterprise, you need to verify the security of cloud-based systems and make sure passwords adhere to internal guidelines. Cloud attackers will have a difficult time gaining a foothold if theyimplement a zero-trust strategy.

The tools and strategies employed by attackers will continue to improve, and enterprises must keep adapting. Long-term success in the fight against ransomware involves vigilant monitoring of both your company’s network, as well as broader industry developments.