Backup, Backup, Backup

The Sony Pictures breach used destructive malware that wiped every file and made systems unbootable. It was the same style of attack called Shamoon that struck Aramco in 2012. Aramco, Saudi Arabia's national oil company had 30,000 systems infected by the destructive malware. Ultimately the company had to replace systems and lost files as a result of not having effective backup systems in place. Systems should be backed up on a weekly basis. The backup should include the operating system, application software, and data on a machine. Multiple backups should exist. One backup should not be accessible from corporate endpoint systems to safeguard against crypto-malware. Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky is an advocate for parallel systems known only to IT teams designed to keep critical business operations functioning while a threat is contained and systems are brought back online. Offline backup and system redundancy or failover should be a key part of an organization's corporate IT planning, Kaspersky said.