What Is Ransomware?
Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts or locks your critical data, making it inaccessible until you pay a ransom, and even then, there is no guarantee your data will be restored. Modern ransomware may also exfiltrate sensitive information before encryption, creating additional risks beyond data loss – including regulatory and reputational damage. Attackers often gain entry to a company’s network, escalate privileges, and spread across systems: encrypting data, deleting backups, locking users out, and demanding payment. Ransomware is one of the most rapidly growing cyber threats businesses face today. Protecting your organization now requires a multi-layered, strategic approach.
Signs of a Ransomware Attack
Companies usually realize they’re ransomware victims when:
- Files become inaccessible or encrypted
- You see ransom notes displayed on screens or within file directories
- Your backup data has been tampered with or deleted
- Business operations become severely disrupted due to locked systems
Tip: Quick detection and response are crucial to minimize damage. Monitoring for unusual backup failures, unexpected spikes in backup volume or unexplained deletions can help you react faster.
Immutability and Isolation
A key part of ransomware defence is ensuring that backup copies cannot be altered or deleted -even if attackers breach your primary network. This might be achieved by:
- Using immutable storage such as WORM tapes
- Storing at least one backup copy on an air-gapped or offline system (physical or logical separation)
Quick reminder: Regularly verify that these backups are complete and restorable and test restore procedures to ensure they work under real conditions.
After an Attack
Once hit, organizations typically face three choices:
- Negotiate or pay the ransom (without any guarantee that the data will be recovered and be clean)
- Lose data
- Restore from backups (if they’re secure and unaffected)
How Bareos can help
Bareos is a cross-network open source backup solution (licensed under AGPLv3) that preserves, archives and recovers data from all major operating systems. With features such as role-based access control, support for offline and immutable storage (like WORM tapes) and built-in verification jobs, Bareos helps protect your data from ransomware threats.
Its modular architecture ensures backups may be stored apart from maybe compromised systems, therefore limiting the attack surface. Bareos also supports the separation of system and data backups, making it possible to rebuild clean systems and restore only trusted data after an incident.
Core principles of secure backups
- Immutability: Store at least one backup copy on WORM media or air-gapped/offline storage. Attackers are unable to change or remove physically separated backups
- Isolation: Keep your production environment and backup infrastructure apart, either physically or conceptually
- Restorability: A backup is only useful if it can be restored. Test your backups frequently
- Early Detection: Monitor your backup jobs and infrastructure for anomalies (e.g., volume changes, failures, deletions) as an early warning of ransomware activity
- Encryption: Encrypt backups to protect data confidentiality, especially against data exfiltration
The 3-2-1-1-0 Strategy
Follow the best-practice backup rule:
- 3 copies of your data
- 2 different storage types
- 1 off-site copy
- 1 copy that is offline or immutable
- 0 errors in your recovery verification
How Bareos protects your data against ransomware
Bareos provides multiple features to secure your backups against ransomware:
- WORM Tape Support (Write Once Read Many)
Bareos supports WORM tape technology, making backup data impossible to modify or delete, significantly reducing ransomware risks. - Offline and Air-Gapped Backup Storage
By supporting air-gapped or isolated storage options, Bareos keeps backup copies safe even if the primary network is compromised. - Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Restricts privileges to only those required by each user - Backup Verification
Bareos includes built-in verification jobs, checking backups for unexpected changes and ensuring data integrity. - Secure Client-Server Architecture (by design)
Bareos’ architecture keeps backed-up data isolated from client systems. Even if a client is compromised, it cannot modify or delete existing backup data. - Encrypted Backups
All backups can be encrypted, protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access. - Strategic Backup Scheduling
Bareos allows flexible and regular scheduling of backup jobs to ensure frequent restore points are available without overloading the system. - Disaster Recovery with ReaR Integration
Bareos seamlessly integrates with Relax-and-Recover (ReaR), providing fast and automated disaster recovery capabilities for Linux systems.
How to strengthen your ransomware defense
- Use separate, strong credentials for backup administration.
- Limit network access to the Bareos Director and storage servers.
- Store at least one backup copy on immutable (WORM) or air-gapped storage.
- Test recovery regularly, including from isolated or offline backups
- Ensure Bareos and all related software are updated and patched
- Integrate multi-factor authentication (MFA) where possible
- Educate your team on ransomware tactics and response plans.