Late Thursday, Atlanta, Georgia was hit by a ransomware attack that ended up infecting multiple applications and devices, crippling the city’s municipal computer system. As city employees arrived at work on Friday, they were each handed a flyer telling them not to turn on their computer until the IT department had cleared their systems. In the meantime, cybercriminals were demanding $51,000 in bitcoin to return access to the ATL. The Atlanta attack is just the latest high-profile ransomware attack that should prompt everyone to review their data protection strategy – because given how fast the threat from ransomware is evolving, old defenses are proving less effective against the new threats.
For companies of all sizes, business backup software is an essential part of their security strategy. Financial, technical, and legal documents, as well as other working materials, form the basis of every business operation and must be protected. If these documents disappeared for any reason, a company would have to deal with big financial losses, if it survived at all.
As a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection and storage, Acronis is always developing or enhancing solutions designed to solve the challenges that businesses face, both today and in the future. So we asked IT Central Station to conduct a survey of North American businesses as a pulse-check on the attitudes and practices of IT professionals, system engineers, project managers and business owners regarding the backup services they require.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) have solved many of the problems that have historically plagued hard-disk drives (HDDs), particularly when it comes to sudden mechanical failures and longevity. In fact according to tests of a Samsung 850 Evo, the official estimates show that if you write 20GB on it every day, this SSD will last for up to 187 years. Can SSDs really replace HDDs? Let’s not forget, HDDs are first introduced in 1956 by IBM, more than 60 years ago. So let’s look and see if SSDs are as reliable as they are advertised.