How to Protect Your Business Backups from Ransomware

Ransomware attacks have evolved from rare, headline-grabbing incidents into a daily operational risk for organizations of all sizes. In recent years, attackers have leveraged automation and artificial intelligence to increase both the volume and sophistication of their attacks. This means that traditional security measures—while still essential—are no longer enough to keep your business safe.

According to recent studies, over 72% of businesses worldwide were affected by ransomware attacks in 2023. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are particularly vulnerable, being targeted nearly four times more often than large organizations. The consequences are severe: if your backup data is compromised—whether encrypted, deleted, or otherwise rendered unusable—recovery becomes nearly impossible without paying a ransom. And even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll get your data back.

Why Backups Are Your Last Line of Defense

When ransomware strikes, your backups are your ultimate safety net. But modern ransomware doesn’t just target your production data. It actively seeks out backup files and repositories to block recovery. This makes protecting your backups more important than ever. Organizations with clean, recoverable backups are able to restore operations within a week, while those forced to pay ransom often face months of downtime.

Five Core Principles for Ransomware-Resilient Backups

So, what can you do to ensure your backups are truly resilient? Our new eBook, “How to Protect Your Backups from Ransomware,” provides a practical guide with five proven strategies:

1. Keep Multiple Copies, Including Offsite and Air-Gapped Backups:
   Maintain at least three sets of your data: your primary production data, local backups for quick recovery, and offsite or air-gapped backups (such as cloud storage or removable drives). This ensures that even if ransomware spreads through your network, you have isolated copies to restore from.
   
   
2. Adopt Incremental Forever Backups:
   Traditional backup methods can be slow and inefficient. Incremental forever backups capture an initial full copy and then only track changes, making backups faster and more storage-efficient. This approach also enables restores from any point in time, providing a more robust foundation for data protection.
   
   
3. Focus on Immutable Backups:
   Immutability features—such as those offered by cloud storage providers—prevent data from being deleted or altered for a set period. NovaBACKUP, for example, offers job-level immutability and built-in integrity checks, ensuring your backup data remains safe and recoverable.
   
   
4. Isolate and Secure Your Backup Storage:
   Keep backup storage separate from your production environment. Never map backup storage as a network drive on production systems and use backup destinations exclusively for backup data. Limit access to backup storage and use dedicated credentials to minimize the risk of accidental exposure or ransomware spread.
   
   
5. Test Restores and Verify Integrity Regularly:
   A backup is only valuable if it can be restored successfully. Regularly test your restores—both automatically and manually—to confirm data integrity and recovery speed. Document your restore procedures so any team member can execute them under pressure.
   
   

Don’t Wait for Disaster

Ransomware is a constantly evolving threat, and your backup strategy must evolve with it. There’s no single checkbox that makes your backups ransomware-resilient. It’s the combination of features, strategy, and ongoing maintenance—such as regular reviews of configurations, retention policies, backup schedules, and access controls—that ensures your business can recover quickly and completely.

This includes validating that your backup jobs are running as expected, confirming that critical systems and applications are covered, and updating your plan as your environment changes (for example, when you add new servers, endpoints, or cloud workloads). You should also align your backup and recovery objectives with your RPOs and RTOs, so you know exactly how much data you can afford to lose and how fast you need to be back online.

With a disciplined approach and the right tools, you can turn your backups into a reliable last line of defense that keeps your organization running—even when ransomware gets through.

Ready to take action?

Download our free eBook, “How to Protect Your Backups from Ransomware,” to get detailed guidance, practical examples, and best practices for MSPs and IT professionals.

Download the eBook now