Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    How Veeam Helped New Orleans Fight Ransomware

    Rapid ransomware recovery requires a good backup and recovery plan.

    Written by

    Zeus Kerravala
    Published June 12, 2023
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      When faced with a ransomware attack, organizations and government agencies need to have robust protocols in place to respond quickly. The importance of regular and secure backups cannot be overstated. The City of New Orleans learned this lesson firsthand during a complex and time-consuming backup and recovery process following a ransomware attack.

      In the aftermath of the ransomware attack, the city was forced to take the drastic step of completely shutting down its digital infrastructure. As a result, 100 percent of city services became unavailable overnight, causing significant disruptions. The city needed to address these issues by deploying a solution that was easier to use, worked better, and could be trusted to keep data secure. To do this, the city turned to Veeam.

      I met with Kim Walker LaGrue, CIO of the City of New Orleans, at the VeeamON 2023 conference in Miami to discuss how Veeam’s technology has helped the city with both backup recovery and disaster recovery. Highlights of the ZKast interview, done in conjunction with eWEEK eSPEAKS, are below.

      Also see: The Successful CISO: How to Build Stakeholder Trust

      • The New Orleans ransomware attack is a key example of how vulnerabilities can be exploited. The incident began with compromised credentials. The IT department noticed unusual activity when there were constant password resets, and remote access was detected on user workstations. It was discovered that a user had opened a malicious email, allowing an attacker to infiltrate the city’s network.
      • To recover from the attack, the city cleaned and inspected its existing data, transferred it onto new storage platforms, and implemented a fresh backup strategy with Veeam at its core. This approach ensured that as data was reintroduced into production, it was not only clean and free of ransomware, but also immediately backed up through Veeam. Ensuring the cleanliness of data is a critical but often under appreciated aspect of recovery.
      • The city bounced back from the ransomware attack in just about a month. But the real game-changer moment came a year and a half later when New Orleans had to deal with a major disaster. A hurricane caused the city’s main data center to be destroyed by a fire. The city had to rely completely on secondary storage and its backups. This time, New Orleans restored its entire environment and got the backups online in the secondary data center within 48 hours.
      • Before turning to Veeam, the City of New Orleans was dealing with fragmented backup solutions deployed across different parts of its IT environment. The backup solutions weren’t efficient enough to ensure fast recovery, which is crucial in the event of a data breach or a natural disaster. The city wanted a solution to consolidate the backup processes for all these disparate systems into one location.
      • The city chose Veeam due to several key factors: simplicity, responsiveness, user-friendly interface, and immutable backups—an especially useful feature where backups cannot be modified or deleted after they are stored. Overall, Veeam’s solution acted like a security blanket over the city’s infrastructure as it was being rebuilt. This gave the team confidence during a potentially stressful period.
      • Operationally, moving to Veeam has provided the city’s data center team with flexibility and automation regarding data recovery. The team can now easily identify and restore specific elements, whether an individual file or a set of servers, from a single interface that Veeam offers.
      • For other organizations dealing with ransomware, the best approach is to prioritize and categorize data because it holds the most value. So organizations can truly understand the nature of the information in their environment. This puts technology solutions in the best possible position to recover, eliminating the need for organizations to negotiate with threat actors or pay a ransom.

      Also see: Secure Access Service Edge: Big Benefits, Big Challenges

      Zeus Kerravala
      Zeus Kerravala
      https://zkresearch.com/
      Zeus Kerravala is an eWEEK regular contributor and the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. He spent 10 years at Yankee Group and prior to that held a number of corporate IT positions. Kerravala is considered one of the top 10 IT analysts in the world by Apollo Research, which evaluated 3,960 technology analysts and their individual press coverage metrics.

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×