Be Ransomware R.E.A.D.Y: A New Cybersecurity Playbook for Quick, Clean Recoveries

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Jun 11, 2024, 10:15 ET

BOSTON, June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ransomware attacks pose a severe threat to businesses, often leading to devastating financial and operational consequences. Adopting a comprehensive cybersecurity playbook is essential to ensure resilience and swift recovery. Elastio, an agentless cloud-native cybersecurity platform, introduces a new playbook that enables clean recovery from ransomware attacks with minimal downtime and data loss.

The Reality of Ransomware and The Need for Resilience

Ransomware can devastate businesses. Travelex, a leading foreign exchange company, declared bankruptcy after an attack, and 60% of small businesses shut down within six months of a cyber attack.

To combat this, many enterprises invest in preventive measures like IAM solutions, anti-phishing tools, and firewalls. However, as threat actors become more sophisticated at bypassing existing security, attacks may still be inevitable. Even multi-billion-dollar companies like MGM, with advanced ransomware prevention solutions, have fallen victim, incurring $110M in damages last year.

In this environment, businesses must also invest in post-attack solutions to mitigate impact and prevent escalation into devastating events.

R-RPO and R-RTO as Cornerstones of Cyber Recovery

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) are essential metrics for determining the maximum acceptable downtime and data loss a business can endure without significant operational impact.

To stay safe against cyber threats, it's crucial to understand that cyber recovery is not the same as disaster recovery; traditional disaster recovery alone leaves your organization vulnerable to re-attack. Therefore, focus instead on R-RPO (Ransomware Recovery Point Objectives) and R-RTO (Ransomware Recovery Time Objectives).

R-RPO: RPO determines how much data a company can tolerate losing during an unforeseen event, guiding backup policies. However, in a cyber attack, it's not enough to have backups; you need recoverable backups. Ransomware can infiltrate backups, rendering them useless. Testing backup integrity to ensure they are free of ransomware is essential. Follow the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, ensuring zero compromises in backups.

R-RTO: RTO sets the maximum time to restore normal operations after an outage. Beyond operational downtime, failing to meet RTO can also lead to legal costs tied to customer SLAs. Ransomware actors moving laterally across systems increase the time needed to recover and restore operations. Minimizing detection time and ensuring quick recovery from verified clean backups are crucial for meeting your R-RTO.

Be Ransomware R.E.A.D.Y. and Meet Your R-RPO and R-RTO

Assuring that your business is prepared for a ransomware attack and can minimize data loss and downtime to your objectives is a continuous process. Do not wait until after the attack to confirm that you are ready.

Elastio, an agentless cybersecurity platform, recommends the Ransomware READY playbook to ensure your business is always prepared to meet its objectives.

1. R ecognize Assets

What: Automatically discover all assets
Why: Understand your whole environment to prevent threat actors from exploiting unprotected assets with ransomware and malware.

2. E stablish R-RPO Objectives

What: Set Ransomware Recovery Point Objectives (R-RPOs) for assets based on business and regulatory requirements.
Why: Define an acceptable data loss window for each asset with sensitivity to its criticality.

3. A ssess Data Integrity

What: Perform comprehensive deep-file inspections on assets for ransomware encryption and malware.
Why: Identify threats that have bypassed perimeter defenses and verify the integrity of backups.

4. D efend Continuously

What: Integrate threat alerts into your SIEM and always retain the last-known clean backup.
Why: Respond swiftly to threats before they spread and always maintain a viable recovery option.

5. Y ield Improvements

What: Review Ransomware Readiness Reports, which show the extent of your protection coverage and the age of your most recent clean backups, and make necessary adjustments.
Why: Frequently revisit R-RPO targets against actuals and business/regulatory needs.

This playbook helps ensure that your business is always ready to meet its Ransomware Recovery Point and Time Objectives, maintaining resilience against ransomware attacks.

Reach out to the Elastio team to learn how you can make your business Ransomware READY.

SOURCE Elastio