Top 5 Methods for Ransomware Data Recovery and Protection
Organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on their data, making it (and them) a prime target for hackers. Learn how to quickly and safely backup data to ensure business continuity.
Organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on their data, making it (and them) a prime target for hackers. Due to a large number of security flaws present in operating systems and software, as well as the increased attack surface as a result of outdated security protocols, remote processes, and workers, etc., it is nearly impossible to prevent cyber criminals from taking advantage of a network.
When cybercriminals launch a ransomware attack, they take your data and computer systems as hostages and threaten to corrupt or damage your data, or make it inaccessible. The goal behind this attack (as its name suggests), is to extort money in exchange for the decryption key.
Any sort of attack on your data can undermine business continuity if you don't have adequate recovery and protection measures.
The only defense against ransomware is a safe backup of your data, (you should both: make backups, and scan them for vulnerabilities regularly). Businesses should have a comprehensive plan to protect their data and recover their systems to a functional state in an emergency.
Effective methods for Data Recovery and Protection
The tweaked 3-2-1 backup rule
The 3-2-1 backup rule is a tried-and-true method for protecting data that mandates your company must have at least three copies of your data stored on two distinct types of storage media, with one of the copies stored offline or in the cloud.
This guideline has been around for a long time and has stood the test of time. However, in the absence of backups and an offline backup of your data that ransomware cannot access, you may be forced into paying the ransom to recover your data. The solution? Apply a modern tweak to the3-2-1 rule for data backups.
The purpose of the tweak is to guarantee that you have at least one backup copy not locked or corrupted, using which you can recover.
In other words, the rule now reads three copies, two media, one offline, and one that has been verified to be recoverable.
Immutable snapshots for quick restoration
Backups and snapshots that are vulnerable to ransomware and not locked or immutable can be encrypted or erased, rendering them useless for data recovery.
It is possible to quickly restore your data if ransomware encrypts your files with an immutable or protected snapshot of your data. The snapshots may be stored locally on a protected storage device that does not provide access to the backup data; they may also be stored remotely in a cloud storage facility or on backup tapes that cannot be altered; all three are viable options.
If cloud storage is used for data backup and recovery,decentralized storage systems like Slikare the best bet for storing immutable backups. Since it follows the blockchain principle ofnative immutability, it can be the best way to fight ransomware.
Encrypted and isolated backups
When defending against ransomware attacks, protecting your data is the final line of defense. If your production data and backups share the same network or storage system, then both sets of data are susceptible to attack. This is especially true if your backups are stored on the same network.
Cybercriminals have become more skilled in recent years, and one of the first things they do is actively look for and delete the backups, so there is no hope of recovering any data. The only way to guarantee that your data can be retrieved is to save backups in a location that the ransomware cannot access, such as thedecentralized cloud storageor offline storage media.
Backups that are application-aware
For applications that rely on databases, further attention is needed if the database files themselves merely safeguard their data. The recovery of applications to a state where they can be deployed again with little damage to the business requires a multi-step process when a disaster or ransomware strikes.
So, it is critical to have an application-aware backup that safeguards application metadata and enables the recovery of the database server. Regular application recovery evaluation tests ensure that data and apps can be rapidly restored and returned online.
Granular time-recovery points
If you only back up once a week and ransomware attacks on day 6, you only have a recovery point from six days ago, resulting in the loss of a large amount of data.
Backups must be executed consistently, and that data snapshots or copies of data collected at specific points are made as frequently as possible. As a result, you can restore the data as close as feasible to the point at which it was encrypted or destroyed.
Bonus Tip – Use Decryption Tools
You may be able to use decryption tools depending on the sort of ransomware you've been infected with. The algorithms established by security specialists are used to decrypt your files and computers after they have been encrypted by ransomware.
These tools are available from various online sites, includingthe No More Ransomware project, among others. Make sure that the origin of the file can be trusted before downloading any utility, though. There are a large number of counterfeit utilities available, many of which contain additional malicious software.
After successfully unlocking the files, you should prevent any further infections of the machine with ransomware at all costs. If you leave the computer vulnerable, it could come back. Install a reliable anti-malware program at the potential entry point of the infection if no protection software is already deployed.