

Furthermore, it can isolate the infected item versions and enable effective quarantine and recovery. First, it can detect abnormal file access or file modification activity, identify the user account, and block further action with an alert to the administrator. This is a knock against relying purely on traditional backups since you may recycle backups before learning that ransomware has infected some of your data.Ī data-aware hybrid cloud storage solution has distinct advantages for protecting against ransomware. With the vast majority of data being stale, we may not bump into encrypted content right away. Ransomware often will not infect the entire content profile in an enterprise file system – usually just a portion. For this reason, an in-depth ransomware defense strategy needs to be much more than having an up-to-date virus definition and making a regular backup of your data.Ĭonsider also that it is possible for ransomware to go undetected for days or weeks before the problem is found.
#Backups and encrypto virus software
Ransomware is a new threat type that, for the most part, sidesteps your anti-virus scanning software which uses signature-based detection. In the cloud storage, are you able to identify and expunge the bad version and promote the last known good version to become the latest version? Cloud Advantages Versus Traditional Backup for Ransomware Protection

If there is cloud storage versioning and it is enabled, then you need to see how versioning can come to the rescue in a recovery scenario.Īfter removing the ransomware, are you able to easily leverage the version history to recover your local data to the last known normal version? This assumes that the cloud storage solution you are using includes data recovery features. Recovery Considerations with Cloud Storage However, not all cloud storage solutions have versioning, or versioning may not be turned on, so we recommend that you verify this with your cloud storage provider. Versioning is, therefore, an advantage against ransomware because the encryption attack is effectively going to result in a new version of your infected files. Since they cannot change, any modification is going to result in a new version. With versioning, the idea is that existing versions of your data are immutable.

The local copy is likely to become encrypted by the ransomware and sync up to the cloud.Īlternatively, if there is a pointer, it is liable to recall a copy of the item from the cloud and encrypt it and sync the encrypted version of the item back up to the cloud at some point. The same concept is true in enterprise scenarios with cloud storage gateways or other storage tiering solutions. When ransomware strikes, it is going to rip through your files locally and encrypt them, and the file sharing engine is going to sync this change to the cloud storage copy as well. Any changes that you make sync up to the cloud, right? Your cloud storage is vulnerable to ransomware to a large extent by way of the fact that it is syncing with local data storage.įor example, a file sync-and-share solution like DropBox or OneDrive allows you to work on your files locally. To fully understand how ransomware can infect cloud storage, let us examine the common approaches to cloud storage. Thus, we will also explore some additional things you need to consider when leveraging the cloud in your ransomware strategy. In this post, we will discuss how cloud storage can be the cornerstone of your ransomware insurance plan, but also how it is not a silver bullet in and of itself. As a natural response, cloud storage and backup vendors are positioning their technology as a solution to the ransomware threat. However, as we will explore, cloud storage can give you a significant data protection advantage with more flexible recovery options.Īs ransomware attacks increase, many are wondering what they can do to protect themselves. Here are the essential things you need to consider regarding ransomware and your cloud storage strategy.įor starters, can ransomware infect cloud storage? The simple answer is that cloud storage is not inherently immune to ransomware.
