Racksquared Blog | Could your company recover from a ransomware attack?

Could your company recover from a ransomware attack?

Ransomware attacks in North America rose by 158% between 2019 and 2020, according to cybersecurity firm SonicWall’s 2021 report. For many people, ransomware attacks really hit home when the May 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack brought fuel shortages to the East Coast — and when the June 2021 JBS meat company attack shut down nine beef plants, causing a nationwide meat shortage. Combined, these two companies paid $16 million in ransom to recover their businesses, and those were just the direct costs paid to the hackers, according to reports from CNBC and WSJ. In addition, each company spent millions more in the recovery and restoration of their business systems.

If these incidents haven’t caused your organization to take note and implement programs to mitigate the risk of a ransomware attack, then you don’t understand the magnitude of the risk. Every company, regardless of size, is a potential target for ransomware — and when the hackers strike, it may close your doors forever.

In 2021, Racksquared worked with three companies that sought assistance in recovering from ransomware attacks. The one common thread across all three of these attacks is that offsite immutable backups made a difference in the cost and speed of their recovery.

Here is a quick synopsis of what transpired with these three companies:

1. The first company had a vendor providing offsite data backup services. When the attack happened, the company requested their offsite backups and were able to recover from them. The biggest challenge they had with their backup process was that they had failed to test it, and it took close to five business days for their service provider to deliver the backup tapes to them.
2. The second company had monthly backups that were stored offsite, but on the date of the attack, they had not spun the current month to tape and the onsite backups were encrypted by the hackers. Racksquared was able to work with them to recover to the month-old data, but they lost a month’s worth of data. The lesson learned here was that getting backup tapes offsite in a timely manner is crucial.
3. The third company was on an IBM Power server, which is a system that hackers seldom target. When the attack occurred, the hackers were able to encrypt the integrated file system (IFS) on the IBM Power Server, rendering that system unusable. Fortunately, the customer had an “air-gapped” backup of the IFS, and Racksquared was able to work with them to restore the system. In this case, the customer felt pretty sure their system would not be targeted, but having the IFS backed up saved the day.

In each of the above cases, offsite immutable data backups enabled the companies to restore their systems without paying ransom and without significant data loss. Racksquared Data Centers has extensive experience in helping companies design and implement data backup and disaster recovery solutions to ensure business continuity.

If you are interested in exploring options for mitigating ransomware risk in your company, Racksquared Data Centers can help. Contact us at (855) 380-7225 or sales@racksquared.com to schedule a discussion where we can evaluate your current approach and environment and give you a quick evaluation of your risk factors.

Racksquared Data Centers provides access to technical expertise, the latest technologies and a secure, reliable, resilient environment for your IT systems. We become an extension of your team, providing flexible designs and solutions while managing, monitoring and supporting your infrastructure, so that your business is always up and running. www.racksquared.com