Does It Help To Have the .gov Say This?

Nobody listens to the industry experts. Will they listen to the government? I doubt it. CISA shares guidance on how to prevent ransomware data breaches

Also, can I say that I HATE the CISA logo? The circut in the eagle's wing is okay, but the radio tower looks like a logo from the 1950s.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released guidance to help government and private sector organizations prevent data breaches resulting from ransomware double extortion schemes.

Their recommendations are even good. But nothing is brand new, or ground-breaking, or anything. It is basically what the security industry has been saying for some time. So why is it better coming from the .gov? Well, they can lord it over government agencies, but the rest is just a suggestion. And an old set of suggestions, really.

The first item in the list is as follows.

Maintain offline, encrypted backups of data and regularly test backups

Testing is a problem. Offline is also a problem for most businesses. (If it is online, it is not a backup, it is only a copy.) Click thru for the rest.

And just because you are not running a government department out of your home office, or have a political campaign's email server tucked away in you family room, doesn't mean you can't get hit. And of course ransomware isn't the only hazard. Little things like fires can destroy a lot of data.