In today’s digital landscape, where cybercriminals evolve faster than security protocols and can cripple entire industries for months on end (e.g. the UnitedHealth Group ransomware attack), protecting your backup data is no longer just a best practice—it’s a survival imperative.
Traditional backups alone are no match for modern ransomware attacks that seek to compromise backup repositories. To ensure rapid recovery if or when ransomware gets through, businesses must embrace immutability as a cornerstone of their backup-level security. Without immutable backups, even the most diligent backup efforts can be rendered useless in the blink of an eye.
What Is Immutability in Backups?
Immutability refers to the concept of storing data in a way that it cannot be altered, deleted, or corrupted once it has been written. When a backup is immutable, it means that the data remains in its original state, free from tampering or modification, until its retention period expires. This property is crucial in protecting backups from threats like ransomware, accidental deletion, or even malicious insider activity.
With immutability, organizations gain confidence that their backup data is secure and untouchable, which in turn ensures a reliable path to data recovery in case of an incident. Whether on cloud platforms, on-premises storage solutions, or hybrid environments, immutability is a key factor in future-proofing data protection efforts.
Today, many leading data protection products such as Veeam, Commvault, and Cohesity support immutable backups. In an October 2024 poll of backup & recovery professionals on LinkedIn, 84% of respondents said their “organization’s backup strategy today [involves] keeping immutable backup copies,” only 12% said their organization didn’t, and 4% were unsure.
Did You Know? Bocada now offers centralized immutable backup and encrypted data reporting as a standard report, giving IT and security teams an essential tool to ensure ironclad backup-level security. Learn more.
The Rise of Ransomware and the Need for Immutability
One of the greatest threats to businesses today is ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts data and holds it hostage until a ransom is paid. What makes ransomware especially dangerous is that it often targets backup files in addition to primary systems. Attackers know that if they can access and corrupt backup data, they gain more leverage to extort organizations, as recovery becomes far more difficult or even impossible.
In recent years, ransomware attacks have grown exponentially, as demonstrated by a 55% increase in the number of ransomware attacks from 2022 to 2023. Companies in every sector—from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and services—are being targeted, and even organizations that invest billions into cybersecurity fall victim to these attacks, often through social engineering-based vectors.
However, businesses that implement immutable backups significantly reduce the damage ransomware can cause. Unlike traditional backups, which can be altered by malicious actors once they penetrate a network, immutable backups cannot be changed. This means that even if ransomware infects your systems, the attackers cannot corrupt or delete the backup files. This effectively eliminates their ability to hold your data hostage.
Immutability ensures that a clean, untampered copy of your data remains available, allowing for rapid restoration without the need to pay a ransom.
Regulatory Compliance and Immutability
Data protection regulations around the globe are becoming more rigorous, and to maintain compliance with these standards, organizations must not only take regular backups but also prove that data can be restored in its original form. Here are a few of the most prominent regulations that stress the importance of data integrity and availability:
- NIS2: The NIS2 Directive (Network and Information Systems Directive 2), aimed at strengthening cybersecurity across the EU, emphasizes the importance of data protection and incident response for essential services. Immutability in backups plays a crucial role in meeting NIS2 requirements by ensuring that data cannot be altered or deleted once it’s backed up, safeguarding against cyberattacks like ransomware. With immutable backups, organizations can confidently meet NIS2’s stringent requirements for data integrity, availability, and rapid recovery, ensuring business continuity and regulatory compliance in the event of a breach. (Learn about what NIS2 means for data protection professionals.)
- GDPR: The European Union’s GDPR places strict requirements on the protection and availability of personal data. Immutability supports GDPR compliance by ensuring that backups are unalterable, providing organizations with a reliable way to restore personal data in the event of a breach or disaster. (Learn how to fulfill GDPR compliance obligations with Bocada.)
- HIPAA: For healthcare organizations in the United States, HIPAA mandates data availability and protection for sensitive patient records. Immutability guarantees that this data is not compromised or tampered with, even in the face of cyberattacks, ensuring continuity of care and compliance with HIPAA standards. In the wake of the massive ransomware attack against Change Healthcare, Congress is moving to modernize HIPAA’s cybersecurity and backup requirements with its newly proposed Health Infrastructure Security Act (HISA), and the proposed guidelines require annual cybersecurity and recoverability audits and stress tests. (Learn how to fulfill HIPAA compliance obligations with Bocada.)
- FINRA: Financial firms regulated by FINRA are required to retain accurate records that cannot be altered. Immutability safeguards the integrity of financial records, reducing the risk of non-compliance and hefty fines. (Learn how to fulfill FINRA compliance obligations with Bocada.)
- SOC 2: SOC 2 compliance revolves around maintaining secure and reliable systems. By incorporating immutability into backup strategies, organizations can provide evidence that their backup data remains untouched and secure, further bolstering their SOC 2 posture. (Learn how to fulfill SOC 2 compliance obligations with Bocada.)
With immutable backups in place, organizations don’t just meet these regulatory demands—they exceed them. By demonstrating that their data remains secure and unchangeable, companies can build trust with customers, stakeholders, and regulatory bodies alike.
Preventing Accidental or Malicious Data Loss
Data loss can happen for a variety of reasons beyond ransomware—human error, system malfunctions, or even malicious insiders can result in data being accidentally or intentionally deleted. In these cases, immutability serves as an essential line of defense.
Consider a scenario in which an employee with elevated privileges accidentally deletes critical files, or worse, a malicious insider intentionally tries to wipe out vital data. With traditional backups, there’s a chance that the damage could extend to backup data, making recovery more difficult. However, with immutable backups in place, neither accidental deletion nor deliberate destruction of backups is possible. Immutable backups create a secure, unalterable record of your data, protecting your organization from internal threats.
Immutable Cloud Backups: A Critical Evolution
As cloud adoption grows, so too does the need for immutability in cloud-based backups. Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have embraced the concept of immutability by offering immutable storage solutions, enabling organizations to leverage the flexibility and scalability of cloud storage while ensuring their data remains untouchable.
Immutable cloud backups are critical because they offer added resilience against ransomware attacks that target cloud environments or that attempt to delete or encrypt cloud-stored backup data. With immutability policies in place, even in the cloud, backup files are protected from any malicious changes, making recovery faster and more reliable in the event of a ransomware attack or other incident.
Additionally, immutable backups in the cloud offer seamless integration with disaster recovery strategies. This means that in the event of a data center failure, natural disaster, or cyberattack, immutable cloud backups ensure business continuity, keeping data safe and accessible from any location.
The Path Forward: Embracing Backup Immutability
In today’s environment, where ransomware, regulatory requirements, and accidental data loss are ever-present, backup immutability is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s essential. By incorporating immutability into your organization’s backup strategy, you:
- Prevent ransomware from corrupting backups and maintain a clean recovery path.
- Ensure compliance with data protection regulations and demonstrate a commitment to security.
- Safeguard against accidental or malicious data loss, protecting your organization from internal and external threats.
- Enhance business continuity by ensuring that untouchable backups are always available for rapid recovery.
The future of data protection is trending towards immutability and more broadly towards cyber resilience. As cyber threats continue to evolve and business risks continue to compound, organizations that prioritize immutable backups will be better positioned to defend their data, avoid regulatory penalties, and ensure operational resilience.
Need a centralized backup monitoring solution that reports on backup-level immutability and encryption? Request a demo of Bocada Enterprise today.