Cyber-criminals spare no one and the malware and ransomware they design target organizations, businesses, firms and departments around the globe. Ransomware doesn’t just target Large enterprises, their favorite targets are the unprepared; this includes SMBs, SMEs and large organizations and businesses.
The Threat of Ransomware
Law firms and departments are no exception to this. Actually, ransomware prefers law firms and organizations because of the data they process, store, retain and manage. The IT world has moved past the days when firms and clients had to worry about hackers invading their systems to steal sensitive business data and sell it to the highest bidder. However, today this threat has taken a new form and that’s ransomware. It’s an anonymous belligerent force that cripples systems and forces you to pay. Without the adequate means to recover from such an attack, law firms and organizations risk everything. In other words, without an effective backup and disaster recovery solution, law firms and organizations are exposing their IT infrastructures to data loss, corruption, disruption
6 Reasons why Ransomware is Lethal:
If you’re still unconvinced about the lethal nature of Ransomware, here are 6 facts for you to consider:
What SamSam did to Atlanta’s Court System and Police Department
In April 2018, the ransomware named “SamSam” successfully infected the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. According to Atlanta’s Chief of Information Management, more than a third of the city’s 424 essential applications were affected. This included 30 percent of those supporting important municipal functions like the court system and police department. According to a number of reports, the City Attorney’s office lost all but six of its 77 computers that led to the loss of 10 years’ worth of documents. The police department
In order to stay ahead of ransomware attacks, legal organizations and firms require vigilance, strategic thinking and preparedness. If data protection solutions are not setup prior to a ransomware attack, then there are only two options left for the law department: pay the ransom or choose to not pay and endure data loss. Both choices result in a number of law suits, breach of confidentiality situations and financial repercussions – depending on the scale of the organization/firm/department.
How Law Firms & Organizations can prepare for Ransomware Attacks
In order to prevent data loss and ensure data recovery, security experts suggest the 3-2-1 rule. The rule suggests that there should be a total of three copies of data, stored on two different media and one copy should be kept off-site. This combination of backup results in a robust strategy that makes sure that important data is always available and recoverable. However, data recovery isn’t the only concern in the context of a ransomware attack. The data protection solution should also be able to protect from a ransomware and it should attempt to prevent the need to recover. A complete data protection strategy keeps backup and disaster recovery solutions as the last line of defense while using all the tools to prevent a successful ransomware infection. Conventionally, setting up the 3-2-1 rule and setting up a data protection solution leads to a plethora of services and a complex mix of technology. Add to this mix the large scale and the sensitive nature of data moving through the infrastructure of law firms and it becomes a giant complex mess.
Simplified All-in-One Data Protection Solution – StoneFly DR365™
Instead of setting up separate on-premise infrastructure, then deploying cloud backups and integrating data protection solution separately; law firms can simply setup StoneFly’s backup and disaster recovery appliance – DR365™. DR365™ doesn’t just provide backup and disaster recovery, it is a
- Protect their data from ransomware.
- Make their data highly available and always recoverable.
- Ensure business continuity and a disruption free environment.
- Stay compliant to a number of industry regulations.
- Acquire
cost effective backup and DR with reduced CapEx and OpEx costs.
StoneFly’s products empower 500, 000 businesses around the world. Our customers include Government, Commercial and Corporate clients. With built-in cloud connect services, law firms and organizations can leverage DR365™ to setup their backups in Microsoft Azure Government cloud. Interested about DR365™? Learn more about the appliance here: StoneFly DR365™ Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance. For inquiries, feel free to send us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at (510) 265 1616.