The beginning of a new year inspires change and possibility. In the spirit of starting fresh, we all make resolutions and start initiatives to make the new year even better than the previous one. At Veeam, one of our 2024 resolutions is to help you become more radically resilient in 2024, both in and outside of work.
Be Prepared for the Inevitable
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: It’s no longer a matter of if, but when you’ll face a ransomware or malware attack. You don’t want the first time you’re attacked to be the first time you recover. Prepare by conducting cyber security trainings with your staff to reduce human error, limit access to company data via protocols like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and identity and access management (IAM), and have IT and security teams test your recovery processes regularly.
Implementing (or continuing to implement) these practices in 2024 will help reduce weak points in your infrastructure and make it so that when attacks do come, your organization is able to recover faster.
Close Protection Gaps
Start your IT spring cleaning early and audit your current data protection practices and resources to identify protection gaps in your environment. This is particularly important for companies who must fulfill compliance regulations like HIPPA, GDPR, and more. This also includes examining weak points in your organization and reinforcing those weak points with data backups, adopting a Zero Trust philosophy, and using the most up-to-date data protection software.
Keep Looking Around Corners
In an interview with NYSE earlier this year, our own CIO, Danny Allen stated that companies taking a reactive vs. a proactive approach to data protection is one of the biggest reasons why we’re losing the war against ransomware. Taking a proactive approach means taking the time to anticipate how attacks may happen through steps like protection gap analysis, staff training, and testing recovery scenarios before they happen. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving and becoming better at what they do — you need to make sure you’re evolving at the same or faster rate. You can’t do that without looking forward and being proactive by taking stock of and continually improving your backup and recovery plan.
Ensure you can Recover in a Matter of Minutes
Without an effective recovery plan in place that can get you back up and running in a matter of minutes, you risk losing your data and your reputation. Make sure you’re using cutting edge data protection solutions and testing and revising recovery plans regularly to keep those recovery time objectives/recovery point objectives (RTOs/RPOs) as short as possible to limit the amount of damage bad actors can do to your business.
Remove Silos Between Your IT and Security Teams
One major issue that CISOs have identified on an organizational level is the lack of communication between IT and cybersecurity teams, despite both teams being united toward a common goal. Increasing communications between IT and security teams and having both groups work together means a more unified approach to data protection and making sure that your organization has recovery top-of-mind, whether that’s due to internal breaches or external hackers.
Don’t Forget to Protect Your Backups
We all know that it’s important to protect your actual data, but not enough stock is put into protecting backups. This is especially important now that malicious actors are increasingly targeting these backups. Without data backups, recovery can take much longer or become impossible. Close recovery gaps and reduce the amount of time ransomware and malware has to infect your systems by backing up your data frequently. This means that when you’re attacked, you can quickly go to the most recent point-in-time and keep your business running without facing any significant downtime.
Enlist the Help of a Reliable and Forward-thinking Partner
We all need help, especially when facing a data protection environment like the one we’re facing now. Choose a data protection solution partner that’s reliable and can anticipate and adapt to changes in ransomware and cybercriminal tactics. By enlisting a solution partner that’s cutting edge and strives to always be a step ahead of the cyber criminals, you can ensure you’re as prepared as you can be for when an attack hits. This is at the core of our philosophy here at Veeam, and it’s why our focus for 2024 is making businesses like yours radically resilient against ransomware and other threats.
It’s a new year and a new you: Extend that into your data protection lifestyle too.
