How immutable backups protect wealth management firms from ransomware attacks
Immutable backups are now recommended as a robust line of defence to protect your data. This is extremely important in the Financial Services sector to keep data safe and meet regulation. But how do they work, why are they better than standard backups and why are they important for the wealth management industry? Read on to find out.
How do immutable backups work?
Immutable backups work through the WORM format – Write Once, Read Many. This means the data can be read but not modified, deleted, or encrypted. In the instance of a ransomware attack, if a hacker accessed your system and tried to encrypt or delete your backup data, they would fail, and your backup data remains intact. Your backup data can then be restored to live and used to get your business back up and running again quickly. No data has been taken, so no ransom needs to be paid.
Immutable backups help keep your clients' investments and data safe, ensure no FCA fines, limit reputational damage and operational chaos, and save your business from potentially shutting down.
Why are immutable backups better than standard backups?
Standard backups can still be compromised by cyber criminals. They will actively go looking for them, and once they know where your backup data is held, they can take it and hold it to ransom. With no data to fall back on, your business cannot trade, and your operations will come to a standstill until you can work out a resolution, which may involve paying the ransom fee. If you have immutable backups in place, your data won’t be compromised.
Why are immutable backups important in the Wealth Management industry?
Cyber resiliency and business continuity are vital in the Financial Services world to meet strict regulation and compliance requirements. You need robust protection in place in order to meet FCA and GDPR guidelines. With tight recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) to uphold, you cannot risk having downtime or losing any data. This could result in huge fines for your business. Immutable backups ensure you can access an up-to-date version of your data quickly so you can meet your RTOs and RPOs.
When looking at a provider, you need to ensure you have built-in audit logs, user access tracking, and exportable compliance reports to meet regulation. Granular and customisable retention policies are required in Financial Services which can be met through immutable backups.
I think I need immutable backups. What do I do next?
How about if you could get a fully managed and automated immutable backup solution, on a flexible consumption model, that's compliant with UK regulation from a Financial Services cybersecurity specialist?
Navos, with our partner Assured Data Protection, can support you to up your cybersecurity game, using our expertise in Financial Services cyber resiliency:
- Protection from the industry-leading Rubrik backup solution
- Immutable backups – secure your backup data so hackers can’t compromise it
- Automated reporting and audit trails for compliance needs
- Restore to backup data in minutes keeping service downtime to a minimum
- On-prem or cloud deployment to fit with your business needs
- All hardware, software and support included
If you would be interested to know more about how to secure your data with immutable backups, contact us today for a confidential chat.
