UK-based privileged access management software vendor Osirium Technologies is advising UK businesses to do more to protect the backups and backup systems they would rely on to recover from a cyber-attack.
Its warning follows a survey of more than 1,000 UK IT managers for The Osirium Ransomware Index, in which 56% said they don’t keep offline backups and only 35% take extra precautions to protect access to backups and backup management systems, even though 98% of those surveyed are aware that backups are a target of ransomware attacks.
Four out of five small businesses surveyed said they rely on backups as a plan of recovery should a cyber-attack occur, with 63% of these using online backups as a preventative measure to avoid data loss.
Osirium CEO David Guyatt said: “Online backups are at significant risk because, in the event of a ransomware attack, the backup system faithfully takes copies of the infected data and thus renders the backups useless. A multi-layered approach to managing these systems is needed. Keeping offline backups is key, but protecting access to the backup management system and related backup files is critical to prevent infection. Nearly three quarters (73%) of respondents stated that backups are a key element to recovery, so more attention need to be paid to protecting them.”
Just over half (58%) of UK businesses feel ‘somewhat prepared’ for the eventuality of a ransomware attack.
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