At a time when cyber security is becoming increasingly prominent in the digital world and ransomware attacks are happening to organisations daily, technology businesses and cyber liability insurance companies are talking about immutability a lot. But what exactly does this new buzzword of the IT world mean?
What is immutability?
By definition Immutability means: an immutable repository protects data against tampering, modification, or deletion by bad actors. Put simply, this is a backup storage copy of data that is untouched and can be used by companies to recover critical data and applications should the worst happen.
Why is this important?
In the current digital climate, very few organisations run their systems without back ups but what happens when that backup data is compromised? Without a proper immutable back-up solution, businesses can lose their back up source having devastating consequences.
Cyber criminals in recent years have become more digitally conscious and are now targeting their victim’s back up data first when carrying out their ransomware attacks, using weaknesses within existing systems to modify, encrypt or completely delete back up data. Once backup data is rendered unusable, cybercriminals are pursuing their victims’ production data knowing that the likelihood that they will pay out is extremely high.
What about air-gapping?
A well-designed and protected cyber security system requires an air gapped solution. Air gapping: this is an off-site file system with separation management to isolate and protect an organisations data. By implementing this solution, businesses will be protected against any cybercriminals or even a disgruntled employee with administrative access, deleting, modifying or encrypting data.#
Does this effect cyber liability insurance?
Cyber liability insurances are increasingly requiring that businesses protect their back up data by using air gapped solutions but not all solutions are the same. Some businesses may be able to get coverage for their enterprise but this does not necessarily mean that they will receive a pay out, that they believe they are entitled to. Businesses must look into their insurance’s policy to ensure that they are fully protected.
How do businesses create an immutable solution?
The best solutions are managed and maintained separately from your normal IT environment. We highly recommend working with a third-party provider, like Synapse360 who can not only provide enterprises with an off-site separate location for their data, but can also handle monitoring and the restoration of this data if required.
Here at Synapse360, we can help businesses design, test and manage a backup and disaster recovery solution that provides the correct immutability that organisations need to ensure that data and business continuity is not effected, even when the worse happens.
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