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Making the choice to acknowledge that risk and build your cyber-resilience from the onset is critical. However, businesses also need to understand the current context that puts them at a greater risk to ransomware attacks to avoid breaches and build capable cyber-resilience.

As a malicious software – ransomware’s sole purpose is to hold your data hostage and force a ransom in exchange for its potential but unlikely return. Ransomware works by an attacker gaining access to your network and planting encryption software, before copying your data and threatening to leak it. The attacker then activates the malware software, locks your network and takes away the user’s control. Finally, the attacker demands a ransom threatening the user to make payment so that they can have access to their data.

Businesses can – and therefore should – make better choices when it comes to staying protected by avoiding the first step: which is access. The current ecosystem of network devices and shared cloud data bases has opened access points for threats but utilising multi-cloud environments can ensure data is more resilient in the face of future attacks.

The current security landscape is a threatening one

Building resilience is difficult when the overall security landscape has become more complex.

The global move towards hybrid-working since the beginning of the pandemic has increased threats to workers and businesses alike. Alongside the growing number of personal devices, there are also unsecured networks to consider, and how that widens the attack surface for would-be hackers.

As software exposures increase, so too does the availability of low-cost tools that hackers can access – presenting additional challenges. The cheap availability of these ransomware tools makes ransomware low risk with a high reward potential.

And then there’s the ubiquity of phishing. Now that remote working is so widespread, once a hacker has access to your work laptop, they can easily then breach your home network with all the devices that are connected to it.

Even if the hacker is not successful in extracting ransom from the victim, the data uncovered which contains e-mail addresses of high-ranking executives within a company are often used for future phishing campaigns or often leaked online which damages a business’s reputation in the long-term.

Preserving reputation in the face of an attack

Only a small number of companies file complaints against hackers which is troubling considering there has been an alarming increase in the number of breaches over the past decade. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) Businesses released a report in July 2022 stated that they are exploring ways to improve reporting of incidents because it is such a problem.

A choice needs to be made and employees need to acknowledge that there has been an incident if they find out so that businesses can respond effectively. As difficult as it can be with knowing if a business has been breached, acknowledging the threat helps companies avoid larger breaches in the future.

Companies often want to preserve their reputation by concealing an incident as it can often lead to reputational damage but in the long-run hackers primarily target organizations with a very low tolerance for production downtime – too many companies will prefer to pay the ransom.

How to avoid attacks in the first place

So how do we deal with all this? How do you ensure organisations can build strong data resiliency in multi-cloud environments?

To do this, companies must first change their cursor and adopt a cyber-resilient approach by constantly preparing for a possible data leak or the threat of a production stoppage. No more traditional approach to cyber-security, which aims above all to "barricade" its systems, companies must move towards a more holistic and proactive, but also fully integrated and automated approach to their work environments in order to better respond to a constantly changing technological landscape. Intended to protect as well as detect, respond and recover, cyber-resilience must ultimately offer permanent business continuity thanks to the fastest possible data response and recovery capabilities.

Firstly, a backup and recovery plan must be done must be actioned as soon the incident has occurred.

Secondly, you should create “snapshots” of critical business and operation data that should be stored securely with several local and remote copies being created that the attacker can never access.

Thirdly, to utilise artificial intelligence capabilities that can notify you when it detects surges in activity on your data storage network so that you can reduce the time the attacker has in your system and so you can react immediately and disconnect the user from your system.

Finally, it is to stay on top of incidents and report them as soon as they occur. Often it is difficult to ever know who penetrated your system but acknowledging this can be the first step in providing cybersecurity awareness so that you can better spend resources that you have found are weak. In today’s threat landscape ransomware threats are not a question of “if” but of “when”.

In conclusion, cyber-attacks are a modern element of a business’s operations. Businesses must adapt to the hybrid world and complexities of a changing threat landscape if they hope to thrive in a digital-first world. They can make the choice by first acknowledging incidents and reporting them, second by applying AI capabilities to respond to breaches whilst staying prepared and thirdly and finally using multi-cloud environments to manage and store data safely and securely to continue business.