CIO OPINION
Central to this is the continuous testing of data backups and recovery processes , frequent patching of systems , strong security including multi-person authentication , employee education and training on how to identify ransomware attacks , such as phishing emails and committing to long-term investments that keep your business running in any event .
Despite some organisations believing that they have done all they can to protect themselves against cyberattacks , the 4,200 unbiased IT leaders surveyed for the Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2023 argue that not enough is being done .
Rather , a back-to-basics approach is recommended , with organisations needing to commit their efforts to focus on cyber resilience , strong security measures as well as fast and reliable recovery .
Building a preventative and robust arsenal to reduce the disruption and damage of a successful attack must take priority . This includes testing both original data and backups to ensure no infection , encryption is evolving in the background which should be done at least once a week , as well as using multi-person authentication internally to ensure that a single individual cannot delete backups .
Particularly as 82 % reported that their organisation has an availability gap , how fast they can recover versus how fast they need applications to recover to return to full productivity . 79 % affirmed that their organisations have a protection gap , how frequently their data is backed up versus how much data they can afford to lose after an outage or attack .
While it seems obvious that you need tools to defend yourself against ransomware , you also need to be initiative-taking in your protection strategy and plan accordingly . This is why you should have ideally immutable backups as an integral part of your defence mechanisms from the start .
The recent advancements made in technology , particularly in generative artificial intelligence , have made incidences of ransomware even harder to spot , as cybercriminals can quickly and effectively realise convincing content to trick employees , also called social engineering .
And while throwing money at the problem and investing in shiny new tools to combat the growing threat may work for some , however , it is not addressing the root of the issue at hand , but merely trying to cover it up .
The recent advancements made in technology , particularly in generative artificial intelligence , have made incidences of ransomware even harder to spot .
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