Here's why tape could be your best shot at defeating ransomware

Date:
Tue, 25 Jan 2022 22:51:08 +0000

Description:
Ransomware isn't going anywhere, so businesses need contingencies. Can tape
be the silver bullet?

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Linear tape-open, or LTO tape is, most likely, every organizations best bet against ransomware . A new report from IDC claims that LTO tape inherently comes with five key features, all of which are essential in the fight against threats.

The report states that, for starters, LTO tape comes with government-grade encryption built-in. As the encryption is at the hardware level, it can be implemented without sacrificing performance, while the tapes would be
rendered useless to anyone without the encryption key.

Then, the tab on the tapes cartridges makes them write once, read many times immutable: . Data may be read, but it cannot be changed or deleted by anyone who does not have physical access to the media, the report states. Tape advantages

Furthermore, theres the advantage of the air gap, as the removal of tapes
from a library eliminates the physical connectivity. According to the paper, physical access is the easiest, lowest-cost, and most fail-safe means of establishing an air gap.

Finally, the tapes can be used as part of the 3-2-1-1 backup method, and can be scanned upon restore to detect and delete malware.

Besides these five advantages, theres also long-term retention (LTO media is allegedly certified for up to 30 years for data retention integrity), low total cost of ownership, and the ability to rapidly restore data.

The papers author concludes that ransomware is too big and too lucrative to
be abandoned, meaning businesses need to take all the reasonable steps (including proper backup software ) to prevent the attack from happening in the first place.

Magnetic tape is an established, understood, and proven technology that can
be an invaluable tool for defeating ransomware, Goodwin concludes. LTO tape
is unique in its ability to meet all five best practices for addressing ransomware and giving organizations the best chance of recovery and avoiding the consequences of an attack. You should also check out our list of the best cloud storage service providers out there



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-why-tape-could-be-your-best-shot-at-defea ting-ransomware/


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