Redland Bay
Queensland systems integrator Aliva has stepped up the ransomware defence for a local council that was targeted by “an unprecedented level of ransomware attacks”.
Aliva was hired by Redland City Council to install Rubrik data protection and back-up as the COVID-19 pandemic caused cyber criminals to go on the attack in Australia.
“We’re witnessing an unprecedented level of ransomware attacks targeting our organisation which I chalk up to attackers thinking councils are too preoccupied with COVID-19 to mount an effective defence,” said Glynn Henderson, CIO of Redland City Council.
“While a cryptolocker attack would have severe consequences from a regulatory and reputational point of view, Rubrik’s immutable backups and the ability to rapidly restore if an attack were successful make me feel a lot more comfortable – it’s like an insurance policy against ransomware.”
According to the council, the IT team previously lost days managing an ageing backup and data protection solution that was becoming “prone to failure”.
The previous solution demanded around 20 per cent of a full-time employee’s capacity to manage and approximately half a day each week was spent managing back-ups due to the distributed nature of the servers. In addition, a further half day was required to troubleshoot failed backups.
However, back-ups are now completely automated and have been reduced to just a few minutes each morning using Rubrik’s dashboard and email notifications. According to Rubrik, there have been no backup failures since the implementation.
“Because we weren’t losing time managing backups, we had more capacity to rapidly scale and refine our remote work capability,” Henderson said.
With data protection and backups now automated, Henderson said it led to the council making data-driven decision-making a priority throughout the organisation.
“Across the council, proactive use of data to drive decisions has become the first port of call,” he said. “Rubrik ensures that wherever our data is, in whatever form it is, it is at our fingertips when we need it. It’s created excitement in the business, and it all comes back to data integrity.”
