Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and as an MSP, you’re at the frontline of protecting your clients’ data. The reality is that ransomware is becoming increasingly sophisticated, often targeting not just the live systems, but also backups. So, how can MSPs ensure their clients’ data remains untouchable even in the face of advanced cyberattacks? The answer lies in implementing a multi-layered approach—air-gapped backups, offsite backups, immutable backups, and backup software with built-in protections.
In this blog, we’ll walk through how to design the ultimate ransomware-resilient backup strategy by combining these methods, ensuring your clients’ data is secure and recoverable.
The Multi-Layered Defense Approach
Why Multiple Layers of Protection?
Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their attack methods, making it essential for MSPs to move beyond single-layer protection. Even if an attacker compromises the primary system, they may target backups, rendering traditional backup solutions vulnerable. Combining air-gapped backups, offsite storage, and immutable backup files offers an all-encompassing defense strategy, preventing ransomware from corrupting or deleting critical data.
Air-Gapped Backups: Keeping Data Physically Out of Reach
What are Air-Gapped Backups?
Air-gapped backups are physically or logically isolated from the primary network. By ensuring that these backups aren’t directly accessible online, you protect them from ransomware attacks that spread through network connections.
How to Implement Air-Gapped Backups:
- Physical Air-Gapping: Use external media (e.g., offline tape storage or removable hard drives) that are disconnected from any network once backups are completed.
- Logical Air-Gapping: Implement systems that temporarily connect for the purpose of backup, then automatically disconnect, ensuring no constant connection that ransomware can exploit.
Why It’s Not Enough Without Monitoring:
An air-gapped backup is only as useful as its last successful run. If a backup hasn’t been completed or has errors, it doesn’t matter how well isolated it is. Ensure you are monitoring backup health in real time using tools like Insight by eVelocityLabs to detect failures and ensure timely, complete backups.
Offsite Backups: Protecting Data from Physical Disasters
Why Offsite Backups Matter:
Offsite backups offer protection from localized disasters (fires, floods, hardware failure), ensuring that critical data is stored securely in a geographically separate location. Combined with air-gapping, this creates redundancy in both storage location and accessibility.
Best Practices for Offsite Backup:
- Cloud Storage: Use cloud services that offer advanced encryption and geo-redundancy to store backups. Many cloud providers also support features like immutability, enhancing protection.
- Remote Physical Sites: Store backups at a secondary location (another data center) that is geographically distant from the primary site. The further, the better to reduce risk from natural disasters.
Immutable Backups: Locking Down Data to Prevent Changes
What are Immutable Backups?
Immutable backups are backups that cannot be altered, deleted, or encrypted by ransomware once they’ve been created. Backup solutions like Axcient, Veeam, and others now offer immutability options, which prevent anyone—including ransomware—from modifying or deleting backup data.
Key Benefits of Immutable Backups:
- Protection Against Deletion: Even if ransomware compromises the backup system or the admin console, immutable backups can’t be altered or deleted.
- Legal and Compliance: For industries that require long-term data retention (financial, healthcare), immutability ensures that data remains intact and secure over time.
Implementation of Immutable Backups:
- Cloud Storage Providers: Many cloud storage solutions (e.g., AWS S3 with Object Lock, Wasabi) offer immutability features where backup files are locked and cannot be changed for a designated period.
- Backup Software Solutions: Utilize backup software with built-in immutability features. For example, Axcient offers immutable backups that ensure protection against accidental or malicious deletion.
Built-in Ransomware Protection by Backup Vendors
Ransomware Protection within Backup Software:
Many modern backup solutions have built-in defenses that actively prevent ransomware from impacting backups. Here are a few examples:
- Axcient’s Ransomware Detection: Axcient’s backup solution includes tools to detect anomalies that may indicate ransomware activity, halting backups to prevent infected files from being included.
- Veeam’s Immutability & Insider Protection: Veeam offers immutability for backups and even has features like Insider Protection, which ensures that deleted backup files can still be restored.
- Datto’s Ransomware Detection: Datto provides integrated ransomware detection in its backup solutions, alerting users when ransomware is detected in backup files and preventing infected backups from being completed.
The Importance of Monitoring Backup Health
Why Active Monitoring is Essential:
Even with the best backup strategy—air-gapped, offsite, and immutable backups—monitoring remains a critical component. If a backup hasn’t successfully run, or if there are corruption issues, none of these advanced strategies can save data.
How Insight by eVelocityLabs Helps:
- Real-Time Alerts: Insight can alert MSPs immediately if a backup has failed, hasn’t run on schedule, or shows signs of data corruption.
- Automated Ticketing: With integrations into PSA tools like ConnectWise Manage, Insight can create tickets for any detected backup issues, ensuring no issue is left unresolved.
- Backup Success Reporting: Insight provides reporting on backup success and storage usage, ensuring MSPs have full visibility into all layers of their backup strategies.
Putting It All Together: Building a Ransomware-Resilient Backup Strategy
To provide your clients with the best possible protection against ransomware, MSPs need to take a multi-layered approach:
- Air-Gapped Backups: Physically or logically isolate your backups from the network.
- Offsite Backups: Store backups in remote physical locations or cloud environments to protect against local disasters.
- Immutable Backups: Use backup solutions that offer immutability, ensuring ransomware can’t tamper with backup files.
- Backup Software Protections: Choose backup vendors that offer built-in ransomware detection and protection features.
- Continuous Monitoring: Ensure backup health with real-time monitoring and alerts using Insight by eVelocityLabs.
By combining these strategies, MSPs can offer comprehensive protection, ensuring that even the most sophisticated ransomware attacks won’t compromise client data.
Conclusion:
Ransomware attacks aren’t going away anytime soon, but MSPs can stay ahead by implementing a multi-layered defense using air-gapped, offsite, and immutable backups. But remember: these strategies are only effective if the backups themselves are healthy. Real-time monitoring is critical to ensure that all backups—no matter how isolated or secure—are always available when needed. Insight by eVelocityLabs provides the monitoring and alerting MSPs need to stay on top of their backup health and offer true ransomware resilience to their clients.
