Why your organization needs disaster recovery

Bruce Dyke

It’s difficult to coin a phrase that summarizes 2023 perfectly, but it might be called “The Year of Extremes.” That was certainly the case with weather events, including record heat, devastating floods and wildfires. As always, con artists and hackers took advantage of the distractions: 2023 was a year marked by a record number of ransomware attacks.

Hackers are getting more sophisticated, assailing victims with so-called double and triple extortion attacks. In these scenarios, hackers gain entry to a network through a vulnerability or phishing attack, find critical data, then encrypt the data. They then demand a ransom and threaten to leak the victim’s sensitive information unless the ransom is paid. They can cause further harm by infiltrating the victim’s contacts and demanding a payment from customers or else, exposing their customers’ sensitive info. 

Hackers are targeting the most vulnerable organizations and those most essential to public health and education. For example, in 2023 an estimated 108 K-12 schools, 72 post-secondary schools, and 95 government offices were victims of a reported ransomware attack. An estimated 500 health care-related hacks were reported in 2023, affecting more than 100 million people.

Cellphones also continue to be a coveted attack vector. According to Zimperium’s Global Mobile Threat Report, there has been a 51% increase in the total number of unique mobile malware samples detected year-over-year. 

Forbes predicts that the proliferation of internet-connected gadgets like security cameras, smart TVs and refrigerators, Alexa and Google-powered digital assistants, and other electronic devices will introduce new vulnerabilities in 2024.

With mission-critical business applications depending on the cloud to run their operations, the need to find and deploy effective ransomware protection and disaster recovery (DR) solutions couldn’t be more urgent for organizations big and small.

The traditional backup infrastructure that many businesses currently use is unreliable and ill-equipped for today’s cloud environment. In moments of crisis when fail-safes are needed most, many legacy solutions fail to deliver, resulting in unsuccessful recovery attempts with potentially disastrous consequences. These outdated models tend to have lengthy backup windows, slow recoveries (when successful), and inconsistencies from multiple recovery point objectives. 

Perhaps most concerning is that legacy backup solutions may also be vulnerable to ransomware themselves. Depending on how they are configured, there may be vulnerabilities in software that are not on IT teams’ radar. Furthermore, hackers are getting more sophisticated at attacking backup files, unless they are immutable. If backup files are corrupt, the victim is left with few good options. 

According to a survey of Fortune 1000 companies conducted by IDC, the average cost of an infrastructure failure was $100,000 per hour. It’s a big hit for small companies, too. In a recent survey conducted by Infrascale, 10% of SMBs reported their per-hour downtime cost was more than $50,000.

In today’s world, an elastic defense is the best one

To provide IT with the resiliency needed to combat ransomware, industry leaders need to implement cloud-based disaster recovery strategies that help minimize data loss and provide automated recovery to ensure companies can get back on their feet quickly. The focus for IT should be on implementing elastic, agile and easily deployable cloud-based replication and recovery solutions.

A multi-pronged approach that combines cloud-based and on-site DR is the fastest way to ensure full application and data availability. For companies looking to optimize uptime for their operations and maintain maximum flexibility, shifting DR infrastructure from the data center to the cloud is a logical move.  

Top disaster recovery service providers are stepping up to offer this cybersecurity “secret weapon” to businesses — encompassing a combined approach of robust cloud computing for DR sites, cloud storage repositories for backup data (including immutable backups that can’t be overwritten in the event of a ransomware attack) and turnkey solutions that offer technical expertise with onboarding and implementing solutions. 

Where should your cloud-based DR site be located?

It’s important to choose the location for a cloud-based DR site carefully. It should be situated far enough from the primary site to ensure protection from the incident — malware or otherwise — so the DR site isn’t impacted at the same time. But not too far: the DR site should still be close enough that end users can connect into it without experiencing undue latency or difficulties with network performance.

Selecting the right cloud provider to support a DR strategy is equally important as its physical location. A provider with the right data center, network and technical support will ensure the DR strategy is a success.

To ensure that systems will work as advertised, companies should require that several core competencies be met:

• Robust computing and storage that will perform just as well as the primary site
• Solid replication and automated recovery technology
• People and process to help set up and maintain the DR site
• Maintaining comprehensive incident and disaster recovery plans
• Regular testing to ensure it works reliably and confidently
• A strong network to support the DR site

Growing numbers of organizations have discovered that the multi-pronged, cloud-based approach of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is the key to ensuring they won’t become the next ransomware victim — and every hacker’s No. 1 paying customer. 

Bruce Dyke is the chief information officer for FirstLight.