One of the worst nightmares that could happen to your business can often be avoided by a very simple principle: they cannot destroy your data if the drive is not plugged in.
Ransomware can turn every important document into meaningless encrypted data and demand money for the decryption key. It has affected governments, hospitals, manufacturers, law firms and small businesses alike.
1. Pull the plug on your backup drives
Make the backup, then disconnect the drive and take it offsite. If the drive is not connected, malware cannot encrypt or delete it. Rotate several drives and never reconnect a backup device to a potentially infected machine until a clean recovery plan is in place.
2. Print it out
Computers can be hacked. Paper cannot be encrypted. For truly critical information, maintaining printed copies may be slow and inconvenient, but it provides a form of resilience that cyber-attack cannot touch.
3. Send it safely away by email
For selected irreplaceable files, a carefully managed backup email account can provide another offsite copy. This only works if the account itself is strongly protected and not casually tied into the same compromised environment.
4. Be prepared
Good ransomware protection is not just anti-virus. It is backup design, password discipline, sensible access control, secure remote work, and clear recovery planning. If a business relies on its data, resilience needs to be treated as core infrastructure.