Air Gap 101


Imagine this scenario for a second. There is an army of soldiers marching towards your kingdom ready to invade and take over everything you have ever worked for. The only thing separating your livelihood and the potential intruders is a river. As the enemy approaches the bridge in an attempt to cross the river and enter your land, the king orders the draw bridge to be risen. Alas! The invasion has been thwarted because the enemy now has no way to cross the bridge and enter your kingdom. The king essentially created what known as an air gap.
In modern times, an air-gap refers to computers or networks that are not connected directly to the internet or to any other computers that are connected to the internet. This allows for an added layer of security to your company’s mission critical data. How is a hacker expected to remotely access a computer that is not connected to the internet? Most of the time you can’t, which is why so-called air-gapped systems are considered more secure than others. Air gaps are generally applied where the system or network requires extra security, such as government or financial infrastructures.
These are just a few examples of the types of networks that may have an airgap for security reasons:
- Military and governmental networks and systems
- Financial computer systems such as stock exchanges or banks
- Industrial control systems, such as energy and utility fields
- Systems used in controlling aviation sectors and air traffic control
- Healthcare and medical equipment that realizes on networks
How to guard your business from a ransomware attack with an air gap solution.
An air gap can help safeguard against ransomware and other malware risks by securely retaining a copy of your data offline. An offline and in some cases offsite solution creates an inaccessible barrier that cannot be broken. Having multiple copies stored on different systems and offsite is known as an airgap. The most effective way to implement an air gap data protection solution is with data tape. Both the lifespan and capacity of tape make it ideal answer to your guard against ransomware.
Backup and disaster recovery are the last line of defense against ransomware. In the event that ransomware does infect an organization’s data, if the backup and disaster recovery files are unharmed with an airgap solution, IT can avoid paying ransom and simply restore everything to a point before the attack. Implement an air gap solution to safeguard your data against a ransomware attack.
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Why is it vital for organizations to have a safeguard against ransomware attacks?
Ransomware has grown to be one of the biggest problems on the web with some cases of high-profile targets paying thousands of dollars in order to regain access to their encrypted data. Ultimately, no matter the size of the company, time is money, and the longer your network is down, the more money it’s going to cost your business.
Simply put, ransomware could easily ruin any business. Being locked out of important files for even just a day can have a major impact on revenue. Given that ransomware takes most victims sometimes weeks or even months to recover data, the losses can be substantial.
Not only does being locked out of the network prolong the data salvage period, but the effort required to clean up and restore the networks is just as costly. It’s not always the direct financial hit of ransomware which will damage a business; their reputation will take a hit as well as consumers become wary of giving their data to organizations they believe to be insecure.
Need help creating and airgap to protect your organization against a ransomware attack? Contact us today!