You’re Probably Ignoring a Vulnerability That Could Cost You Millions in Ransomware Attacks

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Summary:

Ransomware is projected to cost $275B annually by 2031, yet unstructured file data remains underprotected. Cold file tiering and immutable storage can cut ransomware risk and reduce storage costs by up to 90 percent.
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Ransomware is projected to cost $275B annually by 2031, yet unstructured file data remains underprotected. Cold file tiering and immutable storage can cut ransomware risk and reduce storage costs by up to 90 percent.

Ransomware is predicted to cost victims around $275 billion annually by 2031, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Yet, despite this growing threat, most organizations’ data protection strategies remain narrowly focused on mission-critical systems — typically stored as block data — while neglecting one of the most vulnerable and expansive targets: unstructured file data. This is because it is way too expensive to protect the vast amount of unstructured file data organizations have and are continuing to amass.

File data may not always be considered “critical,” but it is an ideal attack surface for ransomware. Created and shared across departments, accessed by multiple users and systems, file data presents a sprawling and dynamic attack surface.

It only takes one infected file to compromise an entire enterprise network.

One way to protect large swaths of file data from ransomware attacks while avoiding 70 to 90 percent of costs is by shrinking the ransomware attack surface through cold file tiering. Rather than relying solely on data protection strategies that become prohibitively expensive for file data, intelligent data placement sidesteps the risk altogether, saving organizations money while improving their ransomware defense.

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File Data Is Harder to Manage and Defend

While IT teams invest heavily in protecting databases and applications, file data often lives outside the spotlight of cybersecurity investments. Yet it’s exactly this data — PDFs, presentations, media files, logs, research data and more — that represents the most complex and risky data footprint.

The reasons are clear.

Volume and Sprawl

Enterprises manage billions of files and multiple petabytes of unstructured data across on-premises and cloud environments.

Broad Access

File data is frequently accessed and shared by many users, making it more susceptible to accidental exposure or malicious activity.

Cold Data Buildup

As much as 80 percent of file data is cold — no longer accessed but retained for compliance or institutional knowledge — yet still sitting in expensive, high-risk storage.

Snapshot Vulnerabilities

Traditional snapshot-based recovery solutions can also be infected or deleted. Even tamperproof snapshot technologies may restrict the use of storage-based tiering due to backdoor vulnerabilities.

Escalating Storage Costs

As file data grows, so do costs. Backups, snapshots and disaster recovery (DR) plans must cover every copy, inflating storage budgets and complexity. Clearly, using data protection as the sole mechanism for ransomware defense is untenable for file data.

One global law firm, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, illustrates the stakes. Facing 20 percent annual growth in file data and increasing costs from frequent on-premises storage expansions, Katten needed a more scalable and secure solution. The firm deployed a file data management strategy that included intelligent tiering to immutable cloud storage, saving $900,000 while dramatically reducing the ransomware attack surface. They achieved this without interrupting user and application access to tiered data.

5 Steps to Reduce Ransomware Risk from File Data

Organizations must take a proactive approach to managing file data, especially the cold, inactive files that no longer serve daily business needs but remain vulnerable to attack. Here are five essential steps to reduce ransomware exposure and control costs.

5 Strategic Ways to Reduce Ransomware Risk from File Data

• Identify and classify cold data.

• Offload cold files with file-level tiering.

• Store tiered files in immutable object storage.