The Pandemic led to thousands of workers having their workplaces moved to their homes.
In fact, the Pandemic has leveraged digitalization, exposing several cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It is no coincidence that ransomware attacks increased exponentially during the pandemic period.
The reasons given for this growth in cyber attacks have to do with the time spent at home which has led individuals to spend more time online, that is, more time exposed to the most varied digital threats.
However, the real and most important reason is the fact that employees have not adapted to the new reality, have not changed the configurations of firewalls to be able to access SaaS solutions (Software-as-a-Service) from home. In fact, these solutions were the life saver of many companies, enabling normal work, without constraints, especially at the financial level.
SaaS (offering software as a service) is based on a form of cloud computing that delivers cloud applications via web browsing. This means that companies make applications available over the Internet that allow various tasks to be carried out remotely.
This tool arose from the need for more and more immediate responses on a daily basis. In addition, updates are automatic, which guarantees constant security without wasting time.
In terms of costs, this revolutionary way of providing solutions has a low cost compared to other offers, since it eliminates the need to constantly purchase software and also removes the imposition of investing in an on-premise IT infrastructure. A recurring example of such SaaS solutions is Office 365.
These solutions can be implemented either in the Data Center or in cloud services capable of managing the environment, the latter being the most used as it can be accessed from anywhere.
The adoption of SaaS does not only entail advantages. Despite the security guaranteed mainly by storing data in the cloud and its simplicity of OPEX models, much data started to be produced outside corporate firewalls, so data was not stored in physical spaces in companies. This translated into ransomware attacks not only against computer systems, but also against the most commonly used SaaS applications.
It is therefore essential that users of this software are more careful than ever about security practices, changing passwords regularly and also keeping antivirus software up to date.
The important thing is not to neglect security, since it is essential to continue to maintain the concern with the data backups, and the SaaS providers are not in charge of the data produced in the applications. This means that they are responsible for availability, but not for its restoration, so if there is a ransomware attack, the suppliers are not committed to its recovery. Hence the importance of implementing a complete data protection and recovery system.
It is crucial that companies do not relax when it comes to the field of IT disaster recovery just because they have adopted these SaaS-based solutions. Thus, it is essential to have a recovery strategy that is tested and updated frequently. Through this, businesses can continue to benefit from these solutions without being compromised by ransomware attacks.
A decisive factor to guarantee that security policies are followed is the IT teams, namely the consultants, who can and should understand if everything is fully complied with.
ActiveSys, in partnership with renowned manufacturers such as Commvault, can manage and provide this type of solutions.
Do not hesitate to contact us for further information.