Backup & Disaster Recovery

Why Ransomware Is a Business Continuity Issue

By Carrie Reber

25 January, 2019

Everyone has seen the headlines: Ransomware shuts down a small business, city government, or hospital, resulting in major disruption, downtime, and sometimes the payment of thousands of dollars in ransom. And yet, according to a recent report by research firm Forrester entitled Ransomware Is A Business Continuity Issue, most firms are not prepared to handle cybersecurity-induced disasters.

In its report, Forrester examines the state of ransomware readiness, exposing the all-too-common illusion of preparedness vs. the reality. If your business isn’t fully prepared for this type of attack, you’re not alone.

Notable findings include:

Alarmingly, almost half of those surveyed test backups for recoverability only twice a year, or less often.
One in four IT organizations surveyed don’t test their ability to recover from archives. Without the right kind of backup system, ransomware can corrupt both the active data store and the backup instance, making recovery from archives critically important.
And yet, 77% of survey respondents felt either very confident or confident of their ability to recover from ransomware attacks, a degree of confidence that Forrester considers unfounded.
More than one fifth of those surveyed have been impacted by cyberattacks within the past three years. It can happen to you.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as Forrester also recommends three key actions to improve your readiness. Collaboration across functional teams, regular recovery testing, and operational and design changes can make a big difference.

Read the (full report here) to find out how your ransomware readiness compares with your peers—and how you can improve.

Carrie Reber is senior product marketing manager for SolarWinds MSP.