Ashley O'Connor
Marketing Executive
February 8, 2023
The chief executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) claims that ransomware is “the most immediate danger to UK Businesses”, with threats able to impact any organisation, from FTSE 100 companies to local schools and councils. According to a 2021 report commissioned by Google, the UK is the number 1 western country affected by ransomware, and within the top 10 of most targeted countries globally.
A recent study found that the number of reported ransomware attacks in the UK doubled between 2020 and 2021. This rise is a result of the ever-increasing profitability of these attacks. Some UK Higher Education institutions have reported paying in excess of £2 million to resolve ransomware incidents, while the introduction of “ransomware as-a-service” has fuelled the epidemic, enabling criminals to execute attacks without any technical expertise.
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WHAT IS A RANSOMWARE ATTACK?
Ransomware is a type of malware that is designed to encrypt user’s files and data, denying them any form of access until a ransom payment is made. When this type of attack occurs, it is impossible to decrypt the data without the access key, which is generally held at ransom by the attacker.
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This form of cyber attack can be devastating to organisations, preventing them access to critical systems and data, resulting in operational downtime. In 2021, the average duration of downtime after a ransomware attack was 22 days. Even when the ransom is paid, victims still face downtime when decrypting data, and some victims may never successfully decrypt their files after paying the ransom.
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WHO IS THE TARGET OF RANSOMWARE?
The authors of ransomware initially focused on extorting individuals, although over recent years cyber criminals have realised the full potential when ransomware is employed to attack organisations, shifting the focus of threats to both the public sector and private businesses. Today, digital systems and data play a crucial role in the operations of most organisations. By preventing access, attackers trigger operational downtime, often resulting in a loss of revenue and ultimately forcing businesses to pay up. Attacks have been reported to effect a wide range of both private industries and public sectors such as but not limited to: education, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail and construction.
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According to NCSC, enterprises and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are especially at risk from ransomware attacks in the UK. This may be due to several factors such as low resource, budget constraints and/or a lack of in-house cyber security experts, making them generally vulnerable and regarded as attractive targets for attackers.
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HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ORGANISATION FROM RANSOMWARE
If you have fallen victim to a ransomware attack, NCSC advises that you wipe and reset your infected devices to remove the malware. Unfortunately, you will lose any data that was created after your most recent backup, or in the most disastrous circumstances, if you don’t have any backups, your organisation could completely lose the encrypted data.
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To ensure that your organisation is adequately protected from this style of attack, you must have a data recovery solution in place that allows you to restore your system to moments before the attack. Zerto is an exemplary solution that enables a resilient recovery from cyber attacks. Systems can be recovered within a matter of minutes, eliminating the risk of data-loss, while simultaneously preventing expensive operational downtime.
ZERTO, A HPE COMPANY
The Zerto solution provides automated disaster recovery, backup and data mobility for on-premises and cloud. Allowing customers to recover entire applications, sites, and databases at scale with only seconds of data loss.
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CONTINUOUS DATA PROTECTION
Instead of making copies every 12-24 hours, Zerto is always on, creating continuous backups every 10-15 seconds. These backups deliver an instant recovery of your data merely seconds behind the real thing. This continuous protection enables users to rewind their system to the exact moment before disaster, eliminating the effectiveness of ransomware.
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IMMUTABLE BACKUP
Traditional backups are not always an effective way to resolve a ransomware incident, because attackers may also target the backups themselves. This is often the case when users opt for legacy recovery solutions.
Zerto overcomes this challenge by providing customers access to immutable data copies, where the data is unchangeable and cannot be deleted, comprehensively protecting your data.
BOTTOM LINE
Ransomware attacks in the UK are increasing at a concerning rate. All organisations must shift their outlook from “what would we do IF we got attacked?” to “what will we do WHEN we experience a ransomware attack?”.
It’s not possible to recover your data without the access key once a ransomware attack has occurred. Therefore to minimise the risk of an attack; you must prepare an adequate data recovery plan. Opting for Zerto guarantees comprehensive protection of your data by delivering always on, immutable backups.
Contact us today to discuss a resilient solution which provides additional assurances to your organisation, allowing you to recover your data within seconds and prevent any costly operational downtime.
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