Cloud Technologies Develops BDR Solution to Negate Impact of CryptoLocker Virus
Poster: SySAdmin
Posted on February 12, 2014 at 7:28:01 AM
Cloud Technologies Develops BDR Solution to Negate Impact of CryptoLocker Virus
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Technologies, Inc., (http://www.cloudtechinc.com) an information technology company serving small to mid-sized businesses, has developed a Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) Server that negates the impact of the CryptoLocker virus and other malware.
The Cryptolocker virus is a variant of ransomware that encrypts computer files including any files on company servers to which the computer is connected. Cryptolocker then demands victims provide payment within a 96-hour period in order to decrypt and recover files. Failure to pay the ransom results in complete loss of all encrypted files. After seeing two of its customers attacked by CryptoLocker, Cloud Technologies developed a solution to enable its business clients to better protect themselves.
Cloud Technologies' BDR Server sits to the side of production servers and workstations taking and storing a snapshot copy of the hard drive every fifteen minutes. This same backup is replicated offsite daily, providing a second level of protection. If a business computer or server is attacked by CryptoLocker, Cloud can restore data from the BDR from a period prior to infection, or can have a virtualized backup server available within minutes.
"Any business that has data worth retaining needs to utilize a BDR server to protect themselves, particularly if their work is time sensitive," said Jeff Freeman, vice president of IT for Cloud Technologies.
Cloud Technologies' BDR server captures all aspects of a business' servers, including systems, applications, configuration settings, services, and data. It backs up Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint servers, as well as other critical application servers. In the event a business suffers a system failure, the BDR Server facilitates a data restore in minutes and can restore a system to the same or to different hardware, or to a virtual environment.
Additionally, the BDR Server is user-friendly, helping businesses to resume normal operations more expediently because users can quickly connect to any of the backup images available and search to recover a single file or folder. Or, they can restore an entire data volume from a backup image file.
"For now the payment of ransom to the attackers and the resulting decryption key appear to be working to unlock the hostage data, but who knows how long that will work or what techniques these criminals will advance to next," said Freeman. "It is important for businesses to stay educated and take proactive measures to protect data," he said.
About Cloud Technologies
Cloud Technologies, Inc. is a managed services and co-location service provider for small to mid-sized businesses nationwide. Services offered include hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems, server hosting, email hosting, high speed internet, virtualization, remote computing, network management, private and public cloud, and others. For more information visit http://www.cloudtechinc.com, contact Jeff Freeman at 205.484.2440or jeff.freeman@cloudtechinc.com.
Contact: Jeff Freeman, Cloud Technologies, Inc.
(205) 484-2440 jeff.freeman@cloudtechinc.com
SOURCE Cloud Technologies, Inc.
Cloud Technologies, Inc.
Web Site: http://www.cloudtechinc.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Technologies, Inc., (http://www.cloudtechinc.com) an information technology company serving small to mid-sized businesses, has developed a Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) Server that negates the impact of the CryptoLocker virus and other malware.
The Cryptolocker virus is a variant of ransomware that encrypts computer files including any files on company servers to which the computer is connected. Cryptolocker then demands victims provide payment within a 96-hour period in order to decrypt and recover files. Failure to pay the ransom results in complete loss of all encrypted files. After seeing two of its customers attacked by CryptoLocker, Cloud Technologies developed a solution to enable its business clients to better protect themselves.
Cloud Technologies' BDR Server sits to the side of production servers and workstations taking and storing a snapshot copy of the hard drive every fifteen minutes. This same backup is replicated offsite daily, providing a second level of protection. If a business computer or server is attacked by CryptoLocker, Cloud can restore data from the BDR from a period prior to infection, or can have a virtualized backup server available within minutes.
"Any business that has data worth retaining needs to utilize a BDR server to protect themselves, particularly if their work is time sensitive," said Jeff Freeman, vice president of IT for Cloud Technologies.
Cloud Technologies' BDR server captures all aspects of a business' servers, including systems, applications, configuration settings, services, and data. It backs up Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint servers, as well as other critical application servers. In the event a business suffers a system failure, the BDR Server facilitates a data restore in minutes and can restore a system to the same or to different hardware, or to a virtual environment.
Additionally, the BDR Server is user-friendly, helping businesses to resume normal operations more expediently because users can quickly connect to any of the backup images available and search to recover a single file or folder. Or, they can restore an entire data volume from a backup image file.
"For now the payment of ransom to the attackers and the resulting decryption key appear to be working to unlock the hostage data, but who knows how long that will work or what techniques these criminals will advance to next," said Freeman. "It is important for businesses to stay educated and take proactive measures to protect data," he said.
About Cloud Technologies
Cloud Technologies, Inc. is a managed services and co-location service provider for small to mid-sized businesses nationwide. Services offered include hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems, server hosting, email hosting, high speed internet, virtualization, remote computing, network management, private and public cloud, and others. For more information visit http://www.cloudtechinc.com, contact Jeff Freeman at 205.484.2440or jeff.freeman@cloudtechinc.com.
Contact: Jeff Freeman, Cloud Technologies, Inc.
(205) 484-2440 jeff.freeman@cloudtechinc.com
SOURCE Cloud Technologies, Inc.
Cloud Technologies, Inc.
Web Site: http://www.cloudtechinc.com