A ransomware recovery plan is a contingency plan for how to respond to a ransomware attack to minimize the damage to a business. You may have heard of a disaster recovery (DR) plan; a ransomware recovery plan is quite similar, but it pertains to mostly intangible assets such as data.
While ransomware protection is essential to proactively prevent ransomware attacks, it’s still important to have a ransomware recovery plan in case anything goes wrong.
If you were to take an inventory of all the most valuable items in your home, you would probably make the most valuable or private items hardest to access and find, but anything you regularly access or use may not require the same type or level of security. The same concept applies to digital assets — always be sure that the most sensitive and important information is protected with maximum security. Going through routine digital hygiene practices such as prioritizing and organizing data as well as assessing and removing data that is no longer needed will help to minimize risk in the long term.
Backing up your data is critical. If cyberattackers compromise your data, and you have the data backed up in a secure cloud server, the cybercriminals don’t have the same power over your organization, and you have more flexibility to retrieve your data on your terms. When considering cybersecurity services, look for those which will allow you to restore your entire enterprise from immutable storage. In other words, you want to have your backups stored somewhere that cannot be altered or changed.
A common factor in cyberattacks is human error: not recognizing a malicious link, downloading malware accidentally, panicking and paying a ransom — these and many other mishaps can be better prevented with security awareness training. By teaching employees of all levels how to become aware of potential ransomware attacks, you can not only help empower members of your organization to prevent ransomware, you can also help them understand how to appropriately respond to attacks and minimize their impact.
It’s no secret that ransomware recovery plans can be complex and time-consuming to build from scratch, even for enterprises that are invested in IT and cybersecurity. Thankfully it’s not necessary to start from zero when it comes to building and maintaining a ransomware recovery plan. Organizations of any and all sizes can partner with cyber security services that help automate many tasks associated with creating and managing backup protocols and storage and access turn-key solutions designed with cutting edge cybersecurity technology.