Enhancing Cyber Resiliency for the Public Sector with Backup Exec

Recently, several US Government agencies fell victim to exploits by the Russian cybercriminal group CL0P, targeting a vulnerability in widely-used software.  

CL0P has a history of demanding multi-million-dollar ransoms by exploiting vulnerabilities in the software applications and networks of companies and agencies. Even when these organizations patch the software as a mitigation strategy, they can still face hefty fines or enormous ransomware demands, significantly affecting their bottom line. The hackers typically demand payment within a few days, making it crucial to access and restore data promptly to avoid business continuity issues. 

The Role of Backup Exec 

This is where Backup Exec comes in. It provides Federal Agencies and mid-market businesses with a robust cyber-resilient strategy for data management. 

Cyber resilience is the ability of a company to maintain business operations despite the best efforts of hackers. It is crucial for protecting networks, IT infrastructure, applications, and sensitive customer information. More than a business necessity, it's a societal issue affecting everyone from small storefronts to the most powerful governments globally. 

Common Cyber Threats 

The prevalent threats affecting cyber resilience in most businesses include: 

• Phishing attacks
• Ransomware 
• Data breaches 
• Insider threats  

These attacks disrupt daily business operations and can lead to significant financial consequences due to fines or regulatory issues. 

Cyber Resilient Data Protection with Backup Exec 

To mitigate losses and business disruptions, having a robust data protection and management strategy is essential. Backup Exec addresses these challenges effectively. All your critical data (virtual, physical, and cloud workloads) can be backed up, locked down against ransomware, scanned for malware and anomalies, and recovered quickly and easily.

Backup Exec offers robust features that significantly enhance cyber resiliency for public sector organizations. Here’s how key functionalities like Ransomware Resiliency, AI-Powered Anomaly Detection, and the NEW Malware Detection capabilities contribute:

• Ransomware Resiliency: Backup Exec provides advanced ransomware protection by ensuring backup data is secure. In the event of a ransomware attack, public sector organizations can quickly restore critical data from secure backups, minimizing downtime and mitigating the impact of such incidents. This resiliency is crucial for maintaining public services and safeguarding sensitive information.
• AI-Powered Anomaly Detection: Utilizing Artificial Intelligence, Backup Exec continuously monitors backup data and detects unusual patterns that may indicate a cyber threat. Early detection of anomalies allows public sector IT teams to respond proactively to potential breaches, preventing data loss and maintaining the integrity of the backed-up data.
• NEW Malware Detection Capabilities: The addition of malware detection ensures that backups are not compromised by malicious software. Powered by Microsoft Defender, this capability scans backup data for known malware signatures, ensuring that restored data is clean and free from threats. For public sector organizations, this means maintaining a high level of trust and reliability in their data recovery processes.
• Together, these features empower public sector entities to build a resilient cybersecurity posture, ensuring that critical data and services remain secure and available in the face of evolving cyber threats.

Many businesses struggle with IT resource limitations, complex environments, and compliance requirements such as HIPAA and GDPR. With increased budget constraints and regulations, companies need a robust data management and protection solution like Backup Exec. 

Why Choose Backup Exec? 

Backup Exec is trusted by over 45,000 businesses worldwide, focusing on cyber resilience and cost savings by eliminating the need for multiple point products. The solution is simple, secure, and unified. It protects data wherever it resides—be it virtual, cloud, or physical environments. 

Backup Exec ensures compliance, protects against ransomware, and securely stores information. 

It provides optimized storage costs and certified cloud connectors for all major cloud vendors. Additionally, it offers workload protection for virtual environments with incremental backups, extended hyper-converged environment support, and automated discovery and protection of new virtual machines. Backup Exec can also recover Microsoft 365 workloads, including SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive user or group data, making it a comprehensive solution for all business challenges. 

Additionally, Backup Exec has achieved full public sector compliance, ensuring that all security and regulatory requirements are met. For more detailed information, visit our blog.

Customer Testimonials and Recognition 

Customers of Backup Exec consistently praise its reliability.

Our backups complete with near 100% reliability, and restores are consistently successful with zero fuss. It just works."–Brandon Mosak, IT Director, Task Force Tips Inc.

With so many customers protecting their mission-critical workloads and applications with Backup Exec, it's clear why we are uniquely positioned as the data protection leader for SMEs. In a market where ransomware and cyber criminals are on the rise, the stakes are high, and Backup Exec delivers the performance and protection needed to defend your data. 

Perfectly priced for SMBs, Backup Exec is very easy to use and offers a superb range of features."—PC Pro magazine recently highlighted Backup Exec on its A-List.

Conclusion 

The importance of a cyber resilience strategy cannot be overstated in today's digital age, especially for Public Sector customers, all of which are targets for Cyber Attacks and malicious attempts at data exploitation like the events we see recently from the group CL0P. Regulations, fines, and the risk of exposing sensitive customer data to attacks should prompt all businesses to evaluate their current strategy and consider whether they have the right protections in place. Implementing Backup Exec can provide additional data management safeguards in your IT environment. 

If you or your business are interested in improving your data management strategy and cyber resilience, feel free to reach out to me directly at dirk.vanderpol@veritas.com.

To try our product before buying, leverage our trialware download to experience Backup Exec’s performance—Backup Exec Trialware | Veritas. Try it free for 2 months and if you are an existing user of Backup Exec, we strongly encourage you to consider upgrading to the latest version today.

Additional Resources 

• To learn more, visit our Backup Exec page: Backup Exec | Veritas 
• To request a call from sales Request a call | Veritas 
• To request a budgetary quote amssbrenewals@veritas.com  

Stay cyber resilient with Backup Exec!