Why an offline backup could save your business from ruin

Ransomware attacks were a huge talking point in 2016 with many businesses and individuals forced to pay up after hackers compromised their data and locked them out of their computers with a digital ransom note.

The advice from the majority of IT professionals encourages victims of Ransomware attacks to never pay up to hackers in the event of an attack. But it can be a very difficult decision to make to refuse payment when your entire business is on the line, which is why many Ransomware victims decide to pay their ransom. However, there are no guarantees that you will be given your data back and the hacker may simply destroy your data, ask you for more money, or both!



Backing up your data
Astonishingly 25% of Ransomware victims surveyed were able to survive a Ransomware attack because they had offline, recoverable backups of their data which were easy to restore. Yet many business still neglect to backup their data.

This is a risky strategy, especially when so much of our companies work is now conducted online through email and social media, the two most common entry points for a Ransomware attack.

Of course prevention is the best cure and briefing your employees on the risks and having the latest Anti Virus software and patches installed is good practice but if you want your business to be able to bounce back from a Ransomware attack then you need to be backing up your files, both via a cloud service and with a physical backup.

Cloud computing is a secure method for businesses to store their data as it easily recovered giving you adequate protection in the event of not only online attacks but also hard drive failures and disasters such as fire or flooding.  For more information about what cloud computing can offer you please call us on 01268 575300 or email us on info@ecl.co.uk