Data Backup | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Ask most IT teams whether they are protected against ransomware, and the answer usually starts with "we have backups." That is true as far as it goes. Backups protect against hardware failure, accidental deletion, and most non-adversarial data loss. Ransomware is a different problem, because the attacker is actively hunting for those backups. A backup is resilient against ransomware only when attackers cannot alter or delete every recoverable copy, and when the selected recovery point has been checked before restoration. CISA's #StopRansomware Guide , developed jointly with the FBI, NSA, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, states that many ransomware variants attempt to find and delete or encrypt accessible backups specifically to make restoration impossible unless the ransom is paid. Backup storage that is reachable from a compromised environment, particularly through compromised administrative credentials, can become part of the attack surfa...

Most organizations believe they are prepared for ransomware, but they probably aren't. Sure, everything seems to be in place: backups and a plan for disaster recovery, plus recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) tracking.  But when a real attack happens, many fail to recover within acceptable timeframes, if at all.  Not because backups are missing but because they're not reliable or can't be retrieved quickly enough. Therein lies the gap between backup and true cyber resilience . Backup isn't worth much without fast and reliable recovery.  What actually happens when ransomware hits and recovery begins A realistic ransomware incident rarely looks like a sudden outage. It unfolds over time. Day 0 – Initial compromise Cybercriminals steal credentials through phishing or exposed services. Day 3 – Lateral movement Attackers move across endpoints and servers using legitimate tools. Day 7 – Privilege escalation Cyberattackers achieve domain a...