In recent weeks, major UK retailers have reportedly been targeted by significant cyberattacks. These incidents have been linked to vulnerabilities within third-party suppliers, highlighting how even indirect attack vectors can lead to widespread disruption. With operations affected and customer trust shaken, these high-profile breaches serve as a wake-up call for businesses across all industries.
Today’s cyber threats—especially ransomware are more advanced than ever. Modern ransomware strains don’t just encrypt production environments; they actively seek out and destroy backup copies to prevent recovery. Some are even designed to lie dormant until they’ve spread across the network and compromised backup systems.
In these scenarios, traditional backups—especially those stored in the same environment or without access controls offer little protection. That’s where immutable backups come in.
Immutable backups are designed to be tamper-proof, unchangeable, and undeletable for a set period of time. Whether stored in the cloud or on-premise, they create a digital air gap between your critical recovery data and any threat actor—even one that has gained administrative access to your systems.
By adopting immutability, businesses can guarantee that they always have a clean, restorable copy of their data, no matter how sophisticated the attack. It’s not just about backup anymore—it’s about resilience.
What Are Immutable Backups?
Immutable backups are copies of your data that cannot be changed or deleted for a specified period of time. They are stored using write-once-read-many (WORM) technology, making them immune to ransomware, malicious insiders (account admins) or accidental deletion.
Why Immutable Backups Matter?
1. Protection Against Ransomware
Ransomware attacks don’t just encrypt production data—they often target backup systems too. With immutable backups, even if your infrastructure is compromised, you can recover cleanly and confidently from a known good backup without paying a ransom.
2. Regulatory Compliance
Industries handling sensitive data—such as finance, healthcare, and retail—must meet strict compliance standards. Immutable backups help you maintain data integrity and align with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.
3. Cloud & On-Premise Resilience
Whether your infrastructure is in the cloud, on-premise, or hybrid, immutable backups are essential:
- AWS: Use Amazon S3 Object Lock or AWS Backup Vault Lock in Compliance mode for full immutability.
- Microsoft Azure: Enable immutable blob storage or use Azure Backup immutability features.
- On-Premise: Solutions like Veeam Hardened Repositories and Dell EMC with WORM support can provide robust protection.
4. Fast, Reliable Recovery
In a disaster scenario, speed is everything. Immutable backups ensure you have clean, verified recovery points, minimising downtime and ensuring business continuity. However it is more important that your business is testing the backups in disaster recovery environment – If you aren’t testing and validating your backups, you may as well not even have backups!
Top Tips for Implementing Immutable Backups
Implementing immutable backups requires a strategic approach to ensure your data is both secure and easily recoverable in case of a cyberattack. Here are some top tips to guide you in setting up and managing immutable backups effectively:
1. Enable Immutability by Default for Critical Workloads
- Tip: Always set immutability policies for your most critical data from the outset. Don’t wait for a breach to realise your backup is vulnerable. By enabling immutability for key workloads, you create an impenetrable backup layer that ransomware cannot bypass.
2. Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Role-Based Access
- Tip: Enforce MFA for backup administrators to prevent unauthorised access to backup systems. Combine this with role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure that only authorised personnel can modify or delete backup policies, reducing insider threats and external compromises.
3. Regularly Test Backup and Restore Processes
- Tip: A backup is only as good as its ability to restore. Test backup and restore procedures regularly to verify that your immutable backups work when needed. Simulate different disaster recovery scenarios to ensure your team is prepared and your systems are functioning correctly.
4. Monitor Backup Activity for Anomalies and Failures
- Tip: Set up real-time monitoring of your backup activity to detect abnormal behaviour, such as failed backups or sudden spikes in data changes. Proactively identifying issues allows you to address potential problems before they impact your recovery plans.
5. Align Retention Policies with Business and Compliance Needs
- Tip: Define clear retention policies based on your business needs and regulatory requirements, and estimate the extra costs of storing additional backups. Retain immutable backups for the legally required periods, while ensuring the backup data is still accessible for your internal recovery needs.
By following these best practices and tips, you can build a robust backup strategy that keeps your data safe and ready for recovery, no matter what cyber threats may come your way.
How Cyberdan Can Help?
At Cyberdan, we help businesses of all sizes implement and manage immutable backup solutions across cloud platforms like AWS and Azure, as well as on-premise environments. Our team will assist with:
- 🔐 Immutable backups are configured correctly from day one.
- 📦 Your backup strategy is compliant and secure.
- ⚙️ Systems are monitored, tested, and ready for disaster recovery.
We work closely with your IT team to deliver a solution tailored to your business needs, giving you peace of mind in an increasingly hostile cyber landscape.
Don’t wait for a breach to realize the importance of immutable backups.
Contact Cyberdan today so we can help your business.
