How to Protect Your Backups from Ransomware

As ransomware attacks become more sophisticated, it’s not just your data that’s under threat— backups are now prime targets too. Research shows that 93% of ransomware attacks aim at backups, and 75% of them succeed.

Many businesses think they are safe because they have backups. However, a quick glance at the latest headlines shows otherwise. Cybercriminals often hold backups hostage, or even destroy them.

For example, in January 2024, the Danish cloud host company CloudNordic discovered that their data, along with their primary and secondary backups, had been completely wiped out. They were unable to pay the ransom and never got their data back.

So, what can you do to prevent this from happening to you? Read on to learn how hackers infiltrate backup systems and discover effective strategies to protect your organization.

What are Backups?

Backups are copies of data. In the event of data loss due to accidents, hardware failures, or cyberattacks like ransomware, backups enable you to restore the original content.

Here are the main types of backups:

Full Backups: Copy all data to the backup system or service. It’s the most comprehensive solution but requires more storage space and time to complete.
Incremental Backups: Save changes made since the last backup.
Differential Backups: Store all changes made since the last full backup, rather than the last backup of any type.
Mirror Backups: Mirror backups create an exact copy of the source data and are typically performed continuously.
Snapshot Backups: These are point-in-time representations of data. Snapshots are often used in virtualized environments and can quickly revert systems to a previous state.

Backups can be stored in various locations, including on-site physical storage (such as external hard drives and magnetic tapes), off-site storage (like cloud-based services), or a mixture of both.

Why You Need to Protect Your Backups from Ransomware

Companies rely on backups to help them recover from cyberattacks. But what happens if the backups themselves are compromised? This gives hackers significant leverage.

Research shows that hackers demand more than double the ransom when they manage to steal the backups. The median ransom demand is around $2.3M (backups compromised) and $1M (backups not compromised).

Organizations whose backups were compromised are almost twice as likely to pay the ransom, because they don’t have a choice.

How Do Hackers Access Your Backups?

Here are some common methods that hackers use to access backups:

Backup Software Vulnerabilities: Hackers often exploit vulnerabilities in the backup software or steal backup administrators’ credentials to gain unauthorized access.
Direct Access to Backup Files: Backup files often have recognizable extensions, such as .BAK, so hackers can easily find them once they have infiltrated your network.
Compromised Remote Access: Backup systems frequently connect to various servers, enabling criminals to exploit weak remote access protocols and poorly secured authentication processes.
Backup Encryption Key Theft: If attackers gain access to the encryption keys, they can decrypt and potentially alter or steal the backed-up data.

Now you know how hackers access your backups, let’s take a look at how you can prevent this from happening.

Best Practices to Protect Your Backups from Ransomware

Protecting backups from ransomware is crucial for maintaining business continuity and data integrity in the event of a cyberattack. Here are several effective practices to safeguard your backups from ransomware:

Limit Access to Backups

The fewer people who have access, the lower the risk of a breach. Restrict who can access your backups, ensure that only essential staff have the permissions needed to interact with your backup systems, and use role-based access controls to manage permissions. Use ProLion’s Permission Monitoring solution to check who has access to what.

Maintain a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Always have at least three copies of your data, store these copies on two different types of media, and keep one backup copy offsite. This strategy helps ensure that you always have a retrievable copy of your data available, even if one backup set is compromised.

Air-gap Critical Backups

Create an air gap by physically isolating your most critical backup systems from the network. This separation ensures that even if your network is compromised, the isolated backups remain untouched and secure.

Use Immutable Storage

Immutable storage is a read-only copy of your data that can’t be altered or deleted for a set period. This helps ensure that backups remain intact, even if ransomware accesses the backup environment.

Regularly Update and Patch Backup Systems

Keep all backup software up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates. Regular maintenance helps protect against vulnerabilities that could be exploited by ransomware.

Encrypt Backup Data

Protect backup data with strong encryption so that even if data is stolen, it remains unreadable without the corresponding decryption key. Ensure that encryption keys are stored separately from the data they protect. However, this method isn’t foolproof because hackers have been known to steal encryption keys.

Regularly Test Backup and Restore Processes

Regular testing of your backup systems ensures that backups are secure, complete, and ready to be restored when you need them. Testing helps identify any issues in the backup process before they become critical problems during the recovery process after an attack.

Don’t Rely on Backups Alone: Use ProLion’s Single-File Restore

ProLion’s targeted restore function allows you to instantly recover affected files without the need to restore entire databases or systems. Learn more about how ProLion makes it easy to search, find, and restore your files.

24/7 Monitoring with CryptoSpike ProLion

ProLion’s CryptoSpike monitors your file systems around the clock for any signs of malicious activity. It detects and blocks ransomware attacks in real-time, preventing them from spreading and compromising your backups.

Protect Your Backups and Data from Ransomware with ProLion

As ransomware attacks become more sophisticated, more frequent, and more likely to target your backups, it’s more critical than ever to protect your organization’s data.

ProLion provides a last line of defense at the storage level, keeping your backups and data safe. In the unlikely event a hacker does creep through, you can restore the files you need with one click.

Don’t wait until your backups and data have been compromised. Connect with one of our cybersecurity experts today or download our free whitepaper to learn more about the best ransomware protection strategies.