5 Ransomware Prevention Tips (Free Disaster Recovery Plan)

Corodata TeamDec. 11, 2023 | Data Protection |
Ransomware is more prominent, sophisticated, and troublesome than ever. Universities, hospitals, and even government agencies have made headlines as victims of malicious computer viruses. No industry is immune. Review these five ransomware prevention tips can help to protect your data.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a form of malicious software (or malware) and once it’s taken over your computer, threatens you usually by denying you access to your data. At that point, attackers demand a ransom to restore your data. Beware, even after following payment instructions, it is rare to receive your data.

Ransomware first appeared as CryptoLocker in 2013. Since then attackers have become more sophisticated and business minded.

Why your business is a target?

There are a number of ways ransomware targets access. One of the most common delivery systems is phishing – spam attachments in an email. Phishing emails are scams fishing for victims in email accounts. Another more aggressive form is through exploiting security holes.

Follow these top five ransomware prevention tips:

1.

Employee training

A great way to prevent a ransomware infection is to educate yourself and your employees on how to identify and avoid attacks on an ongoing basis.

2.

Backup your data

The only fail proof way to make sure you’ll get your data back from a ransomware incident is to take the initiatives and invest in a disaster recovery plan. We recommend you follow 3-2-1 backup model. When you build out your backup and recovery strategy, you should:

3.

Keep at least three copies of your data. The original copy and at least two backups.

2.

Keep the backed-data on two different storage types. The chances of having two failures of the same storage type are much higher than for two completely different types of storage. Therefore, if you have data stored on an internal hard drive, make sure you have a secondary storage type, such as external or removable storage; tape, hard drive, or solid state.

1.

Keep at least one copy of the data offsite. Even if you have two copies on two separate storage types but both are stored onsite, a local disaster could wipe out both of them. Keep the third copy in an offsite location unplugged.

3.

Keep a copy offsite and off the grid

Data that is offline cannot be hacked, destroyed, or affected with ransomware.

4.

Patch your systems on a regular basis

This is crucial to avoiding new and emerging security vulnerabilities.

5.

Keep multiple versions of your data

In case one form of media is infected, you’ll have different versions and sources to backup from.

Download the Disaster Recovery Plan Template

How Corodata can help protect against ransomware?

Corodata offers custom offsite media storage services for your data on magnetic tape, cartridges, optical media, and other types of physical backups. With local storage, you can have a full backup delivered in as little as two hours.

Are you ready to store your data offsite?

Yes, I’m ready

Sources

Learn the 10 K’s of protecting your data from ransomware | Carbonite