Although they have become more popular today, vendor products and guarantees are nothing new. At face value, vendor guarantees are an insurance plan, preparing users for the worst. In the modern, digitally-driven world, data is everything. This is why attacks such as ransomware and malware attacks are so dangerous.
Depending on the type and severity of the attack, the data might be irrecoverable. This can mean businesses might end up going out of business. The backup vendor guarantees to attempt to prevent this. They insure the company from the worst possible scenario, protecting the individual or the company from any potential data loss.
Why Some Backup Vendors Are Offering Performance Guarantees
Many backup vendors offer performance guarantees for many reasons. There is no such thing as perfection, but many vendors won’t admit it. However, when it comes to ransomware, the closest thing to perfection would be the performance guarantees. Performance guarantees from backup vendors protect the customer from frustrating moments when making purchases.
Backup vendors that offer guarantees offer confidence to their customers. Everyone wants to make the right choice when signing contracts with their vendors. The small amount of doubt one might have can be alleviated by these guarantees, which improve the level of consumer confidence in the backup services. Furthermore, they enable the company to enjoy the benefits of backups even in the worst-case attacks by providing:
- Access to files: Backups, when guaranteed, enables quick access to files. With such guarantees, one can very easily access lost files quickly.
- Reliability: Ensuring the accurate replication of data makes the data disaster-proof. Data guarantees ensure a level of reliability that cannot otherwise be enjoyed by the company.
- Scalability: As companies grow and develop, they look to various solutions to manage their data infrastructure. Reliance on solutions such as onsite storage and local backups can be easy when the company is smaller, but they get difficult to manage as they grow. Backups, especially when guaranteed, offer important advantages and premises.
Weaknesses of Backup Guarantees
Despite the benefits guaranteed backups provide, they do not protect the company from the effects of the actual attack when it happens. The sheer frequency of such attacks means that the chances of them affecting your company cannot be ignored. When they do, the guaranteed backups will ensure a quick recovery. However, they do not protect you and your company from several disadvantages.
First, it is important to note what these vendors guarantee. What is guaranteed here is only the recovery of files as they were backed up. The guarantees are not from ransomware and do not offer any manner of protection from malware-infected backups. In situations like Attack-LoopsTM, where your recovered files reinfect your production environment with ransomware, the guarantees might be meaningless.
Furthermore, the backup guarantees offer little financial protection from any ransomware attacks. A close review of the guarantee’s stipulations shows that the likelihood of a guarantee being paid out is low due to the extreme compliance with security best practices required of the target organization.
In comparison to the guaranteed payout, the costs of ransomware attacks are tremendous. The most obvious is the actual ransom if it ever gets to that. Even though the authorities often do not recommend paying a ransom in such a situation, most businesses will end up paying, given the potential losses they might suffer if they wait it out.
The costs of ransomware attacks include downtime costs and reputational hits once consumers discover that your company has been hit by a ransomware attack, regardless of the levels of protection and the speed of recovery. Even the backup guarantees such vendors provide cannot save you from the potential damage that comes from this. The sheer costs over the past few years from ransomware attacks can help put this into perspective.
For instance, in the past few years, the number of losses businesses have suffered from ransomware attacks has increased. In 2018, the ransomware damages were predicted to have hit $8 billion. The 2019 figure was projected to have been $11.5 billion. The figure in 2021 was $20 billion, 57 times more than in 2015. It is important to note that such figures are conservative, given that many ransomware attacks might not get reported.
At Asigra, we acknowledge the difficulties involved in such attacks and are committed to providing valuable solutions. Asigra offers a more intelligent approach to managing such threats, including our deep six security approach, which offers bidirectional ransomware protection, Deep MFA, and FIPS 140-2 certified encryption.
Learn more by contacting us today!
