You can’t have an IT conversation in 2024 without talking about the threat of ransomware being a when, not an if. In fact, according to the 2024 Data Protection Trends Report, which surveyed 1,200 organizations on their overall strategies, three out of four organizations suffered at least one ransomware attack in 2023.

It is becoming increasingly common that solutions designed to help you protect yourself against myriad cyberthreats offer package services and warranties as part of their assurance to keep your data secure. Cyber insurance, other insurance, and corporate resources can be part of offsetting the costs associated with these ransomware attacks. One such resource is Veeam’s Recovery Warranty.

The Ransomware Recovery Warranty is a proactive defense tool designed to help organizations avoid paying ransoms to threat actors and prepare for attacks. This preparation is done by placing controls and standards on how data must be protected to ensure no organization is ever put in a position where they must pay a ransom to a bad actor. In the worst-case scenario where proactive defense tactics didn’t work, Veeam is there to cover the costs you incurred during the attack. This is not an insurance policy; it is a warranty to help get you and your data back up and running.   

Understanding Ransomware and its Impact

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts an organization’s data, holding it hostage until a ransom is paid. This disruptive cyberthreat can severely impact businesses of all sizes by halting operations, damaging reputations, and incurring significant financial losses. The 2024 Ransomware Trends Report dove into how the actual impact of ransomware attacks far exceeds just the finical burden of the ransom itself. Such impacts include organizational-level issues, like more pressure on IT and loss of productivity, while individual experiences reported an increase in overall workload and stress. The seriousness of these cyberattacks is underscored byreveals a startling frequency and impact:

• Frequency of attacks: In 2023, only 25% of organizations were fortunate enough to avoid ransomware attacks. 49% reported being attacked between one and three times, while 26% suffered four or more incidents.
• Recovery challenges: The effectiveness of recovery efforts is variable; while some data can often be restored, a substantial portion remains permanently lost. Organizations typically lose about 18% of their data in these incidents, which highlights the critical nature of robust backup and recovery solutions.

These statistics highlight the need for businesses to adopt comprehensive cybersecurity measures, including effective recovery plans like those provided by Veeam’s Ransomware Recovery Warranty. Measures like this can help mitigate these risks and enhance resilience against ransomware attacks.

The Importance of Ransomware Preparedness

The prevalence of ransomware attacks highlights the urgent need for organizations to establish preemptive defenses. An effective strategy is not merely reactive but focuses on preventing attacks before they occur and therefore minimizes potential damage and operational disruption. Preparedness involves implementing strong cybersecurity protocols, educating employees, and ensuring robust data backups are in place.

Any warranty expects a certain level of due diligence in having a pre-identified team and a pre-identified plan. Proactive measures also significantly reduce the time and financial costs associated with recovery. According to industry reports, companies that have comprehensive ransomware prevention and response plans in place recover faster and more cost-effectively. These organizations also tend to experience fewer data losses and reduced downtime, which translates directly into lower overall costs incurred from ransomware incidents. Investing in ransomware preparedness not only enhances operational resilience overall but provides substantial economic benefits too.

One of the most effective ways to ensure your organization is prepared is to have a predetermined incident response plan. If you want to learn more about what is in a typical incident response plan, we will have a blog discussing that very topic coming soon. Having a plan like this in place can also help your organization identify who they need to call the second ransomware hits. Having experts on speed dial is crucial in your organization’s ability to recover quickly. By saving time and recovering at top speed, organizations can shrink the window of opportunity that ransomware has to deal financial damage.

Overview of Veeam Ransomware Recovery Warranty

Veeam’s warranty covers the costs associated with data recovery and resuming operations. This program is a great fit for larger customers who use Veeam to secure their entire environment, and the warranty covers their cost for recovering from an incident quickly and securely.

Some of the conditions that are involved with the warranty include things like keeping an external incident response team, such as Coveware, on retainer. This is one of the ways the warranty can help organizations get ready to defend themselves. It does this not only by having a set of controls in place around their environment, but by mandating that they have support teams lined up to work with them too — and that support includes Veeam.

Resources from Veeam include an internal support SWAT team, in addition to the very popular addition of Coveware. Their expertise around incident response also includes two unique software tools:

• Recon allows rapid initial forensics and threat actor identification during an incident for informed decision making.
• Unidecrypt allows organizations who may need to decrypt encrypted data with a threat actor’s key to speed that process up and make it more secure.

Key Components of the Warranty

When discussing the warranty, one would presume we’re talking about the stuff that must be enacted after the attack as part of the remediation process. But, like most warranties, the real key to success is the prerequisites, or what has to happen before.

Because of that, the importance of setting up a ransomware warranty is in how Veeam and its partners proactively help you prepare your teams, your technologies, and your processes. 

Some of the main functions that can help get your organization prepared include:

• Advanced onboarding: The ransomware warranty includes advanced onboarding, including designing a resilient backup solution and implementation via one of Veeam’s professional services partners.
• Rapid response support: Veeam provides around-the-clock support with rapid response times. This ensures that any ransomware incidents are addressed immediately, thus minimizing potential damage and accelerating recovery processes. The support team consists of experienced cybersecurity professionals who are ready to assist at any moment.
• Dedicated manager and quarterly health checks: Each organization under the warranty is assigned a dedicated technical account manager who oversees the implementation and ongoing management of the warranty’s services. This manager conducts quarterly health checks to ensure all security measures are up to date and functioning correctly and address any vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

Benefits of the Veeam Ransomware Recovery Warranty

Having this warranty in place can help your organization by assisting you with the hardest part of the process — making sure that you can recover your data safely and resume operations as quickly as possible. Warranties can help you design a secure data protection solution by making sure your organization stays secure via the ongoing engagement that we’ve got with the organization.

When the worst day of your organization’s life happens, you’ll have recovery plans on speed dial to make sure that every step of your recovery goes well. Because even though Veeam’s Ransomware Warranty itself is relatively recent, we’re not new to helping organizations recover from attacks.

We have a dedicated support team that’s been doing this for multiple organizations a week for years now. Veeam has always held the opinion that if you plan correctly, if you test regularly, and if you keep products up to date, then you’re doing everything right. And at that point, all that is left for a warranty to do is to put their money where their mouth is. So, if your organization is doing all the right things to protect your data, then you can recover.

We’ve made technical enhancements in Veeam Data Platform, especially in version 12.1, that make sure that you don’t have configuration drift, that your environment is secure when it’s initially implemented, and will stay secure afterwards.

To make sure you don’t have configuration drift and that things stay healthy, we also have dedicated support managers, technical account managers, and quarterly health checks that can make sure your team is up to date on the most current threat environment and recommends the most correct way that your team should keep your Veeam data protection environment secure.

Implementation Process

The point of this warranty is to help organizations who are faced with existential risk. There are organizations that have literally gone out of business because they’ve been attacked by ransomware, and the whole point of employing a warranty is to give your organization a way to manage that risk responsibly.

Applying for the warranty: Organizations interested in the Veeam Ransomware Recovery Warranty can start the application process by contacting Veeam directly through their official website or via a registered Veeam partner. This initial step involves a preliminary assessment to determine eligibility based on the organization’s current IT and security setup.

Onboarding process: Once eligibility is confirmed, the onboarding process begins with a comprehensive audit of your existing security infrastructure. This phase includes setting up necessary software, configuring systems for optimal security, and training staff to handle potential ransomware threats efficiently. This thorough approach ensures that all systems are robustly secured, and staff are prepared to respond to incidents.

Conclusion

The Veeam Ransomware Recovery Warranty offers a comprehensive approach to enhancing organizational resilience against ransomware attacks. Through key components like advanced onboarding, rapid response support, and dedicated management, Veeam provides crucial support that fortifies businesses against disruptive threats. This warranty emphasizes a critical need for robust ransomware protection strategies by ensuring businesses can maintain continuity and security. As ransomware threats continue to evolve, having a dependable recovery plan like Veeam’s warranty is indispensable for any forward-thinking organization.

The main understanding to take away from the warranty is that it’s not there to pay ransoms. The warranty exists as an enablement tool for you. It’s there to make sure you can recover if you do get hit by a ransom, and we’re there to help, even if that means including a financial commitment to absorb some of the cost in the event you get hit.

There are a few different ways to sign up for Veeam’s Ransomware Recovery Warranty. Beginning this process starts an engagement in which Veeam works with you to make sure your company gets the best fit for your needs. You can kick this process off in a couple of ways, either by talking to your sales and accounting teams, or by reaching out to your Veeam partner or Veeam account team.

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