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How Cloud Storage Can Provide Added Ransomware Protection

Ransomware attacks have quickly become the most relevant cyber security risk for businesses and governments. With the potential to cause millions of dollars in damages, as well as costly network downtime, more and more security professionals are looking for new ransomware protection solutions. Unfortunately, it has been found that there is no way to fully guarantee that you will be safe from ransomware attacks. However, with the help of a proper backup and recovery system, you can drastically mitigate the damages and downtime of a ransomware attack. Proper backups eliminate the need to pay a costly ransom, protect your data integrity, and limit potential downtime to hours instead of weeks.

Decommissioning IT Equipment: Data Backup

Cloud Storage vs Traditional Backups

Considering the importance of a robust backup and recovery system many organizations are turning to cloud-based solutions. Cloud backups like AWS S3 Glacier are infinitely scalable, meaning that as your data grows or shrinks you do not need to worry about purchasing additional servers to expand your backup capacity.

They also do not require an upfront capital investment like a traditional data backup system. You can easily set up a cloud backup in a matter of minutes, compared to a traditional data center solution that would require the purchase of servers, office space, and networking equipment before you can even try to set up the backup.

Added Security of the Cloud

A benefit of cloud-based backups is that they are built on the preexisting network security infrastructure from the public cloud provider. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have stringent access control policies for their data centers and top-grade encryption to protect your data.

There are also additional backup services designed to protect against niche versions of ransomware. For instance, Doxware is a type of ransomware where not only is your data ransomed, the attackers threaten to release all of your sensitive data to the public unless the ransom is paid. Proper encryption prevents attackers from decrypting your data, eliminating the possibility of a doxware attack. Cloud backup solutions that feature this method of encryption are referred to as “immutable backups” and are a key solution offered by most public cloud providers.

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