Backup horror stories in the real world.
It’s one thing to constantly warn you all about the need for backups, but without the evidence of real-life situations where one has been required, the importance of backup could be lost on many. How often is a warning ignored due to a simple lack of care, or the negligence of not dealing with an issue until one is created? As always, it is better to be prepared than to try and recover when disaster strikes, which is the mindset that should have been taken by the Indonesian government in July last year.
The cyber attack ended up being the worst in years and after an audit was conducted by the president of Indonesia in response to the attack, it was found out that 98% of the government data that was stored on one of two compromised data centres had not even been backed up. The data centre in question was found to have the capacity to store the data, but they made the choice to not have one, due to budget constraints. Since this happened, the Indonesian government is urging to make it mandatory to have data backups, to prevent this from happening again.
The cyber attack was caused by LockBit 3.0 malware that extracted sensitive data, as well as encrypted it. The standard practice with these kinds of malware is that the hacker will encrypt the data, and then demand a ransom in return for a tool that will decrypt the data. In general, a ransom should always be avoided as there is no guarantee a hacker would even cough up the tool, to begin with, furthermore as these types of stories end up in the news, a successfully paid ransom would encourage other would-be hackers to strike more with the hopes of getting a payout themselves.
In this scenario, the ransom that was demanded was $8 million, which the government stated it had no intentions to pay. If you’d like to read more about the cyber-attack you can do so here – https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/indonesia-suffering-from-a-ransomware-attack-discovers-it-has-no-backups-thats-stupidity-remarks-astute-government-official
What we can take away from this is that a backup is vital in the fight against cyber criminals, while they did not pay the ransom, the consideration of even paying it could have been avoided entirely if they had a backup in place, to begin with. Is it starting to sink in yet that a backup should not be an option, it should be a necessity? Luckily for you, Backup Systems is here to prevent the inevitable. It might not even be a hacker, it could be a simple user error or just outdated technology.
Backup Systems does not skimp out on backups, we have more than enough options for you to choose from that will safely and securely keep your data away from the risks of being lost entirely. There is no doubt a magnitude of data behind any organisation, which you would do right to keep protected as best as you can. Head on over to our managed services page on our website and find the right backup solution for you – https://www.backup-systems.co.uk/our-backup-and-recovery-services/
Contact us ASAP, either by emailing us at info@backupsystems.co.uk or by calling us at 0845 671 0290. All our services come with a free demonstration, which can be provided either over Teams or Zoom, whichever you prefer. We have collaborated with countless clients over the years, saving them in their time of need. See what they had to say about our service over on our reviews page here – https://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/back-up-systems-ltd.
Video by Daniel Lawrence & Mikael Blomkvist
