EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
DEREK COWAN , DIRECTOR OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING – APAC , COHESITY
Every 11 seconds over 33,000 Google searches are entered throughout the world , in that same time somewhere an organization will need to respond to a ransomware attack . Since the AIDs Trojan in 1989 , the first large scale ransomware attack , organizations have been faced with the questions of : How do we respond ? Should we pay the ransom ?
Organizations have many considerations to weigh up here , however , the short answer to the second question is ‘ no ’. There are multiple reasons why paying a ransom is not an effective ransomware response or remedy . And , while it may seem easier to pay , ransom payment does not guarantee business as normal the next day .
In addition , those funds your organization has paid could fund the next attack , which may even be a key partner or customer . It could also be illegal to pay a ransom depending on the jurisdiction of your organization ’ s operations .
Death , taxes and cyberattacks – they are the three certainties in modern life . Every organization will fall victim to cyberattacks , for those that fall victim to ransomware there is a lasting threat to business
There are multiple reasons why paying a ransom is not an effective ransomware response or remedy .
operations , and in many cases something malignant will have been going on for a long time .
By understanding where your data resides and eliminating the fragmentation that occurs across multiple data silos , you immediately are in a better place to protect the precious data being held .
Such next-gen data management solutions and services should consolidate silos , increase visibility , remove complexity , increase automation to eliminate human error and standardize processes , and offer immutable backup by design . Without this level of data management , organizations are unable to holistically protect , detect and recover from ransomware .
If you ’ re in a situation where you have been attacked and you must consider paying a ransom to get your data back , you ’ ve already lost . Businesses must get ahead of these attacks by preparing properly .
People focus on the defense , not on the recovery . Even though it may seem like the easiest way to get your business back up and running , paying a ransom doesn ’ t restore your system back to normal . There is often a lot more work to do , file corruptions and a prolonged period of network / service outage . The quick dollar paid does not provide the remedy it promises .
Taking proactive steps to next-gen data management , before an attack , by conducting regular backups and planning data recovery , will strengthen an organization ’ s ability to respond and remedy a ransomware attack . For the organizations that take the passive approach , the crunch time of having to decide between paying a ransom to moderately recover , or losing it all , might be just 11 seconds away .
A multi-layered security approach to prevent the attack is required upfront , but what about data recovery in the event of a breach of your network ? A next-gen data management architecture offers organizations deeper data oversight and extends your security capabilities , ultimately providing a better chance of recovering against attacks .
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