How GuardMode Ransomware Detection Secures Your Backup Solution

Introduction

A backup strategy in place is essential for protecting your data against a ransomware attack. However, relying solely on backups is not enough to ensure complete protection from continuously more sophisticated risks. 

The thing to remember is that backups can be an effective defense against ransomware only if they are done regularly and stored securely. Regular backups ensure that you have the most recent versions of your data available in case of an attack. Storing backups securely, such as on an offline or off-site location, can prevent the ransomware from accessing and encrypting them. Remember the 3-2-1 rule!

However, there are still some scenarios where backups may not be enough to protect against ransomware. For example:

  • If the ransomware can infect and encrypt the backed-up files before you notice the attack. 
  • If the backups are not set up correctly or not being tested regularly, which may lead to data loss or the inability to restore the data.  
  • If the backup process or systems are themselves compromised.

This is why we’ve decided to enhance the protection against data loss due to ransomware attacks by adding GuardMode, a ransomware detection module specifically designed to further protect your data and backup solution against ransomware.

GuardMode Detection Strategies 

Three fundamental types of ransomware detection allow for a precise and early detection of suspicious activity for your backup and storage admins: 

  • Threshold-based ransomware detection is a method of identifying ransomware attacks by monitoring file access patterns and setting predefined thresholds. It works by identifying when ransomware is attempting to encrypt a large number of files quickly or change file extensions 
  • Honeypot file-based ransomware detection involves creates fake files that look like real data but are designed to trigger an alert when accessed or modified.
  • Blocklist-based ransomware detection is a method of identifying ransomware by comparing file name patterns against a known list of ransomware-specific patterns.

A combination of these three mechanisms provides an effective way for early detection of ransomware, and in combination with a data protection solution like DPX, they significantly enhance the security posture of your team to be more proactive.

Benefits of Ransomware Detection for Backup Solutions 

Avoid Paying Ransom Demands 

First, taking a proactive security posture can help your organization avoid paying ransom demands. If ransomware infects your system and your backups are encrypted, you may have no other option but to pay the ransom to get your data back. However, with GuardMode, you can prevent the attack from encrypting your backups, and you can restore your data from a clean backup copy. 

Minimize Downtime and Decrease Recovery Time 

Another advantage of ransomware detection in backup solutions is that it can minimize downtime. Ransomware attacks can cause significant downtime, which can result in lost revenue and productivity. With GuardMode ransomware detection, you can quickly identify and isolate infected systems, preventing the malware from spreading to other systems and minimizing the time it takes to recover from a ransomware attack. This is because you can get early notification to take action quickly to isolate the affected systems and restore data from backups. 

Improve Overall Cybersecurity 

The early detection mechanisms of GuardMode in combination with REST APIs and syslog integration helps your backup and storage teams improve your overall cybersecurity posture. By implementing measures to detect ransomware and ransomware-like attacks, you can enhance your existing security posture and you’re well equipped for automating actions to take upon detection like: 

  • Making shares read-only instantaneously 
  • Blocking suspiciously behaving accounts 
  • Invoking immediate snapshot/backup on the affected system

It also important to take additional steps to protect against ransomware, such as implementing strong cybersecurity measures and training employees on how to recognize and avoid ransomware using antivirus and anti-malware software. 

Why You Need to Add GuardMode Today

Ransomware attacks can cause significant damage to your business. Having a reliable backup solution is crucial to be able to recover data and systems, but backup solution are not immune to ransomware attacks. Ransomware can encrypt files on source systems before they are backed up, and if unnoticed, making them useless for recovery in the event of a data loss. This is where ransomware detection offered by GuardMode comes in handy. Providing early detection of ransomware attacks allows you to take immediate action to limit the spread and prevent the attack from encrypting your files unnoticed before they are backed up.

Contact us to learn more about GuardMode and how it can seamlessly integrate with your existing  infrastructure and enhance your security posture. We can demonstrate GuardMode in action, and help you integrate and fine-tune GuardMode to fully utilize its potential using your existing infrastructure.

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03/22/2023 0 Comments

Real-Life Ransomware Attacks and How GuardMode Helps to Mitigate the Damage

According to Statista reports, total enterprise data volume was estimated to increase significantly, rising from approximately 1 petabyte to 2.02 petabytes, which represents an average annual growth of 42.2% ( ). It’s important to note that the majority of this data will be stored in internally managed data centers.

This is a lot of enterprise data. With the fast pace of cloud storage adoption, that is in some cases entirely transparent to the end user, we don’t even realize how much data we collect … and how much we have to protect.

Unfortunately, with the growing amount of data, and its importance, ransomware attacks continue to be a growing concern for businesses of all sizes. In recent years, the number of ransomware attacks has skyrocketed, causing significant damage to businesses and individuals alike. While traditional antivirus and anti-malware software can provide some level of protection, these solutions are often limited in their ability to detect early and track these types of attacks.

GuardMode is a solution that provides an additional layer of protection to a backup and recovery solution, specifically for ransomware and ransomware-like threat detection. GuardMode helps detect and alert administrators about suspicious activity in real-time, minimize the impact of an attack on the user’s data and systems, and help roll back just the affected data, without having to revert to a full point-in-time snapshot. In this blog post, we’ll explore two real-life examples of ransomware attacks and how GuardMode detects their abnormal behavior and then helps to mitigate and recovery from the damage.

WannaCry Ransomware

WannaCry is one of the most famous ransomware attacks of all time. This strain of ransomware was discovered in May of 2017, and it quickly spread across the globe, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in over 150 countries. The WannaCry attack used a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows to spread rapidly and infect systems. Reporter Connor Jones of ITPro points out in a recent article that many fail to realize that after 5 years, WannaCry’s ghost, still actively lurks on the ransomware landscape.

GuardMode, with its real-time monitoring’ and behavior-based detection techniques, as well as built-in decoy files deployment, is able to detect the abnormal file access patterns and unusual process execution associated with WannaCry. The software would then alert the backup admin and IT operations team immediately, allowing them to take action before the ransomware had the chance to encrypt their files.

With support for both Windows and Linux machines, GuardMode can detect suspicious patterns and ransomware-specific extensions on file shares. Repeated alerts trigger an automation that would lock down file-shares to read-only and would alert the IT and Security teams to take action immediately.

Furthermore, by integrating GuardMode with a backup and recovery solution such as Catalogic DPX, the orginazation gains an additional layer of recovery.  Through the usage of a REST API and syslog, administrators get an option to automate on-demand snapshots or backups, and gain the ability to roll back just the affected data, given GuardMode is tracking all the encrypted files on the system.

Ryuk Ransomware

Ryuk is another well-known strain of ransomware that has been responsible for significant damage in recent years. Ryuk is typically used in targeted attacks against large organizations, and it is known for its ability to cause substantial damage in a short amount of time. It’s important to remember that typically during a malware attack, the attackers map the network, identify critical systems and gather information about the target’s infrastructure, so later they can use techniques such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or Server Message Block (SMB) to move from one compromised system to another, escalating privileges and expanding their control over the network. Once the attackers have control over the target network, they run the Ryuk ransomware and encrypt files on the file shares, workstations, and servers. The ransomware will typically also delete shadow or backup copies of files and stop certain critical services.

With GuardMode in place, the software is able detect the abnormal behavior associated with Ryuk. With the ability to track file activity, GuardMode could be configured to detect new binaries being installed on systems where no installations should be performed. This allows IT admins to take action before the ransomware had the chance to encrypt their data. Additionally, as Ryuk is a rapid encryption ransomware, GuardMode can quickly detect typical thresholds being surpassed and send an alert allowing Administrators to take immediate action. Ryuk is known to place a RyukReadMe.txt file that contains detailed information about ransom payment – that is yet another thing that GuardMode is looking for to warn users as soon as possible. Furthermore, by integrating with a backup solution, GuardMode can make a copy of backup data available for recovery through a guided recovery mechanism, even if the ransomware was successful in encrypting files.

Conclusion

Ransomware attacks are a growing concern for businesses of all sizes, and traditional antivirus and anti-malware software can only do so much. Recent research from IBM () found that the average breach lifecycle takes 287 days, with organizations taking 212 days to initially detect a breach and 75 days to contain it. The same study revealed there was a 94.34% reduction in the average duration of ransomware attacks between 2019 and 2021, from over two months to just a little more than three days. Taking the above into account, it’s clear that with the advanced and more sophisticated ways of avoiding heuristic-based detection mechanisms, it’s more challenging to detect and block malicious software. GuardMode, with its real-time monitoring and behavior-based detection techniques, provides an additional layer of data protection that can do early detection and alert the administrator or other systems of these types of malware attacks.

By integrating GuardMode with a backup and recovery solution like Catalogic DPX, businesses can minimize the impact of a ransomware attack and ensure the rapid and precise recovery of their data. DPX offers an integrated web-based management console for GuardMode, allowing for easier configuration, maintenance, and alerting.

Contact us to learn more about GuardMode and how it can enhance your security posture and how can it seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure. We will demonstrate GuardMode in action, and help you integrate and fine-tune GuardMode to fully utilize its potential using your existing infrastructure.

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02/13/2023 0 Comments

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