The 5-Step Ransomware Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Ransomware attacks continue to impact organizations worldwide—and the costs are staggering. An independent global survey of over 1,100 IT decision-makers at small and midsize companies commissioned by Arcserve found that 50 percent had been targeted by a ransomware attack, with 35 percent of those targeted asked to pay over $100,000 in ransom and 20 percent asked to pay between $1 million and $10 million.

These numbers are not expected to improve anytime soon. The sad truth is that, despite spending billions on cybersecurity tools, businesses still aren't prepared for ransomware attacks. Less than a quarter (23 percent) of all respondents to the survey said they were very confident in their ability to recover lost data in the event of a ransomware attack. Smaller businesses are even less prepared. Under 20 percent are very confident in their ability to recover lost data in the event of a ransomware attack.

Meanwhile, the attack surface continues to expand as organizations using technologies like IoT, artificial intelligence, and 5G generate even more data—data that can be compromised and held captive by ransomware attackers.

That's why you need to take a new approach to data resilience. You need to strengthen your disaster recovery strategies, backup systems, and immutable storage solutions to prevent the loss of mission-critical data.

Many of your peers are already doing just that. The survey found that 92 percent of organizations are making additional investments to protect against ransomware attacks, with the top areas of investment being security software (64 percent), training and certification (50 percent), and managed services (43 percent).

While these investments are encouraging, more should be done. Because, as with most companies, it’s not a matter of if your data will be compromised; it’s a matter of when. With ransomware attacks continually increasing, data backup and recovery should be at the very top of your organization’s priority list.

Here are five steps you can take now to reduce your exposure to ransomware and avoid staggering losses.

1. Educate Employees

It’s essential to invest in training for staff so that they’re aware of how ransomware works. From there, employees will be better prepared to recognize and prevent it. They should know that ransomware can sneak in from anywhere. The training should remind them to scrutinize every link in emails and not open attachments in unsolicited emails.

Employees should be reminded to only download free software from websites they know and trust. When possible, employees should verify the integrity of downloaded software through a digital signature before execution.

2. Focus on Remediation and Prevention

Companies continue to invest loads of money in cybersecurity solutions like next-generation firewalls and extended detection and response (XDR) systems designed to prevent attacks. Yet these same companies are still falling prey to ransomware and being forced to pay a hefty price.

It’s time for you to stop focusing entirely on prevention. You should also invest in remediation measures like backup and disaster recovery and immutable storage. These technologies let you quickly restore your data and avoid paying the ransom when attackers break in.

Regular data backups and encryption play a key role in protecting your organization’s data. A consistent backup schedule will enable you to restore any compromised systems or data seamlessly. Encrypting your sensitive data is also highly recommended. After all, if ransomware attackers gain access to your critical assets, encryption can keep data from being read and further exploited by the bad guys.

3. Place a Premium on Data Resilience

Your data resilience is only as strong as your weakest link. If you monitor your vulnerabilities and fix them when you find them, you can bounce back quickly from disruption and return to normal operation. To do this, you must have the technologies required to back up your data and recover it if necessary, along with the proper mindset. That means a defensive posture is regularly maintained with drills that simulate an intrusion to measure your resiliency and bolster it where necessary.

Many companies develop a strategy and then neglect to test it. That’s like a basketball team devising a sophisticated defense and never bothering to practice it. Your company should regularly test its data backup and recovery plans to ensure it can effectively restore its data and systems if an attack or natural disaster occurs.

4. Know Which Data Is Most Critical

Data varies in value. If you’re concerned about costs—as most organizations are these days—you don’t have to store or back up all your data in the same place. Look into storage solutions that provide options like data tiering. This enables you to place less-important data in less-expensive levels of storage or “tiers.”

Another upside of data tiering is lower energy costs. You’ll use less compute power if you’re not storing every last byte of your data at the highest security level.

5. Put a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place

Despite all the preventive measures you take, you need to prepare for the possibility of getting hit. So you need a disaster recovery plan. Period. You need to be able to back up data as often as is appropriate. That can range from continuous data protection that takes snapshots of your data every 90 seconds to hourly, daily, or weekly backups, depending on your requirements and the type of data you are backing up. You must also be able to easily verify that your whole environment is backed up, including your remote workers and any SaaS applications you use, such as Microsoft 365.

A good disaster recovery solution will back up your data to the locations of your choice and on a schedule that fits your needs. It will also be easy to test, which is crucial because testing is the only way to validate that your recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives (RTOs/RPOs) can be met. It may seem obvious, but this is where many solutions fall short. Your disaster recovery solution must be able to recover your data every time and on time. When ransomware hits, you want to be confident you can recover your data and get on with business as soon as possible.

Check out this step-by-step guide to creating a disaster recovery plan as a good starting point.

Final Thoughts

There is no perfect defense against ransomware. The best approach is a multilayered one that includes educating your staff and investing in data resilience, including reliable data backup, disaster recovery, and immutable storage solutions. And it includes having a robust disaster recovery plan. That’s how you can stay ahead of this growing threat and protect your data and bottom line.

To learn how Arcserve can help you prevent the consequences of ransomware, talk to an expert Arcserve technology partner.