Back to Basics: Nakivo Ransomware Protection
Nakivo Backup & Replication offers several ransomware protection options to protect data backups against deletion, modification, or overwriting.
A ransomware attack can be a nightmare for a business if the backup protection strategy doesn't include all the necessary solutions to effectively protect backup data and prevent potential disasters.
Back to Basics blog series
Nakivo Backup & Replication Overview
Nakivo Backup Repository
Nakivo Backup VMware vSphere
Nakivo Restore VMware VMs
Nakivo VMware vSphere Replication
Nakivo Ransomware Protection
Nakivo IT Monitoring
Nakivo ransomware protection options
To achieve the highest level of protection against ransomware encryption, Nakivo Backup & Replication provides different solutions to protect hybrid clouds and mixed environments.
Tape
Storing backups on tapes disconnected from the production site ensure an additional level of security since the exposure to ransomware attacks is limited.
Although USB drive and NAS are also possible solutions, the backup management can be tricky.
Immutability
Immutability is a technology that provides strong ransomware protection by safeguarding backups against deletion, modification, or overwriting. An immutable backup cannot be altered until the immutability retention period expires, thereby ensuring the integrity of the stored data.
Nakivo provides two types of immutable backup repositories:
- Linux-based - solution used for on-prem stored backups. immutable repositories can be deployed as a VA (VMware environment) or AMI (Amazon EC2).
- Cloud storage - backups can be stored with native immutability in Amazon S3, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, Azure Blob and other S3-compatible storage platforms.
Replication
Leveraging the Nakivo Replication feature, copies of running VMs or EC2 instances can be created at a DR site ensuring the availability of your business workloads even after a ransomware attack.
If the production site fails due to a ransomware attack, perform a replica failover operation to get services up and running within minutes. Once the production has been restored, a failback operation is required to restore services at the production site.
Offsite Backups
To comply the 3-2-1 backup rule, a copy of primary backups should be sent offsite to cloud storage, such as Amazon S3, Wasabi, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, leveraging the immutability feature to protect data backups against ransomware. Data can be recovered from anywhere, minimizing business downtime.
Instant Verification
If your business has been a victim of a ransomware attack, it is crucial to ensure that backups and replicas are not corrupted and can be safely booted. Nakivo can verify backups to confirm they are available and recoverable.
- Boot Verification - VMs are booted directly from the Backup Repository with the network disconnected verifying the availability of VMware Tools or Hyper-V Integration Services to confirm that the OS is running.
- Screenshot Verification - Nakivo boots VMs directly from the Backup Repository and waits until the OS is running taking a screenshot. The screenshot of the running OS can be checked via email or in the solution’s interface.
Nakivo Server protection
Making backups immutable as part of a ransomware protection strategy is not enough if the Nakivo server itself is not protected against unauthorized accesses.
- Enable two-factor authentication to enforce the security of the login process.
- Assign specific roles to users and grant them necessary permissions to controls who does what.
Keep mind that today an effective ransomware protection strategy is essential to protect data backups, regardless of the type of business.
