Olivia Pickering
Marketing Executive
April 17, 2025
In the UK, cyber threats are escalating at an alarming rate. 43% of UK businesses reported experiencing a cyber security breach or attack in the past 12 months (UK Gov Cyber Survey 2025). Notably, ransomware attacks have become increasingly prevalent, with high-profile incidents disrupting critical services across the nation.
One such incident involved a ransomware attack on a pathology services provider for the NHS. This attack led to the postponement of over 1,000 elective procedures and more than 2,000 outpatient appointments. It’s a reminder that no business is “too small” or “not important enough” to be a target, emphasising the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures.
As a trusted partner of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), DTP offers insights into seven critical strategies to enhance your organisation’s resilience against ransomware attacks.
1. Implement Comprehensive Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions
Ransomware attacks can cripple your operations by encrypting essential data. To mitigate this risk, it’s imperative to have a robust backup and disaster recovery (DR) plan. HPE’s integrated solutions enable granular recovery checkpoints and the ability to restore entire sites or applications swiftly, ensuring business continuity in the face of cyber threats.
2. Enhance Cyber Resilience with Continuous Data Protection
Modern cyber threats require modern solutions. Implementing continuous data protection ensures that your data is consistently backed up, minimising potential data loss. HPE’s solutions offer near-continuous data protection, longer retention periods and faster recovery times. Even if ransomware sneaks in, it means you’ll only lose seconds, not days, of work.
3. Prioritise Rapid Recovery Capabilities
The faster you can recover after a ransomware attack, the less damage you suffer.. Deploying solutions that facilitate rapid recovery can significantly reduce downtime. HPE’s technologies detect ransomware attacks in seconds and enable recovery in minutes, restoring systems to a state just before the attack occurred.
4. Utilise Immutable Data Copies
Immutable backups are unchangeable and cannot be altered or deleted by ransomware, ensuring the integrity of your data. By maintaining immutable copies, your organisation can safeguard critical information from malicious encryption attempts.
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5. Adopt Air-Gapped and Isolated Backup Solutions
Air-gapped backups are physically isolated from your network, making them inaccessible to ransomware. HPE’s Vault solution offers an all-in-one, air-gapped system that stores immutable data copies on secure, high-performance hardware, providing an additional layer of protection.
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6. Implement a Multi-layered Data Protection Strategy
It sounds techy, but it’s really not. Here’s the rule: keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types, with 1 stored offsite, and 1 that’s immutable. This multi-layered approach ensures that your data is protected across various scenarios and creates a robust defence against ransomware
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7. Regularly Test Recovery Protocols
Routine testing of your backup and recovery procedures is essential to ensure effectiveness during an actual ransomware attack. Simulating disaster scenarios helps identify potential weaknesses and ensures that everything runs smoothly when it counts.
Understanding Ransomware Attacks
A ransomware attack involves malicious software that encrypts an organisation’s data, rendering it inaccessible until a ransom is paid. These attacks can have devastating effects, including operational disruptions, financial losses, and reputational damage. Understanding the nature of ransomware is the first step in developing effective prevention and response strategies.
Ransomware poses a significant threat to organisations across the UK. By implementing comprehensive cybersecurity measures, including robust backup solutions, continuous data protection, and regular testing of recovery protocols, businesses can enhance their resilience against such attacks.
DTP, in partnership with HPE, is committed to helping organisations strengthen their cybersecurity posture. To learn more about protecting your data from ransomware attacks, download the Disaster Recovery Guide.
