Ransomware is increasingly common. Yet, the most overlooked thing in IT is just the thing that can save you from a ransomware attack. Working data backups that you can access quickly.
Can a ransomware attack happen to us?
- Ransomware is a cyber attack that freezes company data.
- Hackers demand you pay to get your data back.
- If your IT company can restore your backups quickly, you can bypass the ransom.
- Hackers target just as many small and medium businesses as they do large businesses. Check out this video: You are not Colonial Pipeline and that should scare you.
In May 2021, hackers successfully attacked a company that provides almost half of the fuel used on the US east cost. They had the full support of the US government and their systems were still down for five days. It’s possible they didn’t test their backups and had no idea how long it would take to restore them.
What do we do to keep our clients secure?
The Cloud Office has a small security perimeter that is hard to breach, but it can still happen.
We do lots of things to prevent cyber attacks. However, we also assume our systems can be compromised. We accept that nothing is perfect. Unfortunately, many IT companies don’t know how much time they need to restore backups in case of an attack. This is the most overlooked thing in IT.
Ask your IT company how long it takes to restore your data backups. You can ask for an RTO, or Recovery Time Objective. Be ready for a ransomware attack.
Our personal RTO for primary systems is 2 hours in case of a ransomware attack or other failure. We regularly test our readiness for such an event.
