EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
SURYA VARANASI , CTO , STORCENTRIC
We find ourselves now slowly recovering from a pandemic during which we saw organizations digitizing at warp speed – jumping ahead to year two or three of their five-year plans .
This digitization trend shows no signs of slowing . In fact , most of the executives I speak with advise quite the contrary – they are continuing to accelerate their digitization , many times taking on IT and business strategies they hadn ’ t even imagined before .
They recognize that if they hope to survive and compete in this post pandemic economy , digitization and all that it enables is their ideal strategy .
Unfortunately , as we saw countless times over this past year , this haste can at times open the door to ransomware and other types of malicious software programs ( also known as malware ), if the appropriate precautions are not taken .
Although there ’ s a high financial cost for the actual ransom payment , the biggest consequences of ransomware are data loss and downtime .
Both of these ransomware outcomes are very costly for businesses , with significant downtime resulting
Although there ’ s a high financial cost for the actual ransom payment , the biggest consequences of ransomware are data loss and downtime .
in potentially millions of dollars in lost revenue , in addition to a long term and potentially permanent loss in customer trust and loyalty .
As malware is now also targeting backups , the top precaution we advise our customers to take is to employ an immutable unbreakable backup solution so that they never have to worry about their ability to recover from a ransomware attack . Protecting against a cyberattack is absolutely critical . But , today it is not a question of if , but rather when will we be attacked . It is therefore critical that the recovery piece is in place .
We would advise that the ideal immutable unbreakable backup solution should be designed around the knowledge that attempts at corruption or deletion can come from anyone , anywhere and at any time .
The solutions should include auditing , integrity checks , unique file fingerprints , serial numbers and self-healing features that protect files from being corrupted in any way including ransomware .
Not only is this great ransomware protection , but it also addresses organizations ’ increasingly stringent regulatory compliance requirements for HIPAA , SEC17a-4 , Dodd-Frank , FDA 22 , Sarbanes Oxley , PCI and more .
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