As attacks have grown in number and sophistication, the concept of backup has expanded to include a rapid return to normalcy after successful criminal attacks.
June is considered backup awareness month, an initiative by the IT and data security communities that has been gaining popularity in several countries. And there is no shortage of reasons for this, starting with the growing sophistication of cybercriminals.
“With the increase in number and refinement of criminal attacks, the importance of protecting corporate and personal data becomes increasingly clear. Performing regular backups is an essential practice to prevent loss of sensitive information due not only to bad actors but also to hardware failures, natural disasters or human errors”, observes Caio Sposito, country manager at Arcserve Brasil, the world's most experienced provider of immutable backup, recovery, and storage solutions for unified data resilience against ransomware.
The executive emphasizes that in the current scenario it is not enough to just have a copy of data safe from cybercriminals. “In the digital society we live in, it is no longer possible to afford to leave a critical system offline for a long time, whatever the cause, as the revenue of several companies is directly linked to online operations”, points out Caio . He also recalls that statistics indicate that 82% of ransomware attacks target small and medium-sized companies. “Once hit by a cyber attack, one in five companies completely halts operations until the issue is resolved.”
Carrying out regular backups, keeping data protection always up to date, is still the most effective recipe to prevent organizations from suffering significant losses or having to pay ransoms to regain access to their and their customers' sensitive information. “The concept of information protection today is directly linked to the need for rapid data availability in the event of an incident”, highlights Caio.
According to the executive, there is no magic formula for combating cybercrime. “In addition to implementing a robust backup and availability system, companies must invest in education and training, seeking to adopt good protection practices, which include storing data in different locations, such as in the cloud and on physical devices; the adoption of immutable backups, which cannot be changed even in the case of a successful attack; and carrying out regular tests, to make sure that the defense system is ready to respond to any disaster scenario”, summarizes Caio Spósito.
