Ransomware Attackers are Targeting Backups to get you to Pay
What is one thing you constantly hear experts tell you to do to help mitigate your risk of a ransomware attack? Back up your data, right? New research from Veeam suggests that hackers are starting to get wise and target backup solutions in an effort to get victims to pay the ransom demands anyway.
In Veeam’s 2023 Ransomware Trends Report, they note that more than 93% of ransomware attacks targeted backups. This is based on a sample size that included 1,200 impacted organizations and almost 3,000 cyberattacks. They reported that 75% of cases saw the attacks succeed, and in 39% of the cases, the repositories were completely lost.
“We need to focus on effective ransomware preparedness by focusing on the basics, including strong security measures and testing both original data and backups, ensuring survivability of the backup solutions, and ensuring alignment across the backup and cyber teams for a unified stance,” says Danny Allan, CTO at Veeam.
Other key statistics from the report include:
80% of those surveyed paid the ransom demand in an effort to remedy their problem
59% of those who paid were able to recover their data
21% of those who paid were unable to recover all of their data
16% of those who suffered an attack were able to recover their data from backups
One interesting takeaway from the statistics outlined above is that the number of victims who were unable to recover data from their backups decreased from 19% the year before. This provides evidence that attackers certainly are carrying attacks out on backup repositories – and have been increasingly successful.
Following best practices are important for mitigating your risk, however the Veeam report suggest that businesses should focus on immutability – or the inability to change or modify an object once it’s created - as a way to thwart ransomware attacks on backups.
Story via TechRadar
