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April 25, 2024
One of the worst nightmares of any organization today is falling prey to ransomware attacks. This is especially true of organisations that leverage SaaS apps and other applications to store data in the cloud. To them, losing access to their company’s business critical data in the attacks means they will be out of business instantaneously.
As the number of SaaS applications used by businesses hit an all-time high in recent years, hackers don’t see a point in not utilising this opportunity. They continuously keep adapting their methods to infect systems with ransomware. The result? According to a statistic, there is a ransomware attack every 11 seconds and it was estimated to be a $20B industry in 2022 and is projected to reach US$ 73.9 billion by 2030. Yes, you read it right, a whopping $20B.
Unfortunately, many companies are oblivious to the seriousness of such ransomware and don’t realize the real price they have to pay. They fail to understand how challenging, time consuming and costly it is to recover data from SaaS applications after the attack. Most SaaS apps that businesses use are not designed to easily recover data for a single company. Moreover, the majority of the cloud companies follow the shared responsibility model which stipulates that the end customer is responsible for access/identity and other sensitive data. There are, of course, many backup vendors in the market that offer backups to SaaS applications. But the catch is, most of these vendors offer backups for only two or three apps, which leaves all their other apps vulnerable to attacks.
This is where Asigra’s state-of-the-art ransomware security and backup platforms come into the picture.
Based out of Toronto, Asigra is an award-winning company that offers agentless enterprise cloud backup & recovery platforms that proactively hunt ransomware. Founded by David Farajun in 1986, Asigra provides organizations around the world the ability to securely backup and restore their data through a network of partners who deliver cloud backup and recovery services as public, private and/or hybrid deployments. “What drives the best outcomes for our clients is listening to their needs and building unique capabilities, which enhances their data protection to ensure a clean data recovery,” says Eric Simmons, CEO of Asigra.
Currently, Asigra has two stellar products. One is, Asigra Tigris, which is a ransomware protection software with highly-advanced protection elements built-in; and the other being, its newest product, SaaSBACKUPSM . A revolutionary product, SaaSBACKUPSM enables companies to back up all their SaaS applications in a single platform as opposed to other backup platforms that limits the backup to two to three SaaS apps—M365, Google Workspace and/or Salesforce—to the maximum. “Asigra’s unique approach provides a deep integration of backup and cyber security,” says Eric.
Alongside, the company is also developing an SDK to allow external companies to build additional connectors to backup key SaaS apps that either they would like built or to monetize in the company’s marketplace. “Having the SDK will allow Asigra to scale the number of SaaS apps that can be backed up much faster than if we did it all on our own,” says Eric. “SaaSBACKUP Marketplace – A future addition to our platform will be a marketplace enabling a simple revenue share opportunity for partners who build connectors to new SaaS applications.”
Many months before initiating a ransomware attack, Cybercriminals increasingly implant trojan horse malware into their targets’ systems to prevent them from using their backups as defense against them. To prevent such disasters from happening, Asigra leverages bidirectional malware scanning . This process involves two scans. The first is during the backup, where all files are scanned. And the second, malware is found, the file is then quarantined.
That said, after a ransomware attack occurs and the production environment is encrypted, it is critical to restore a clean version of the data. To that end, Tigris performs a second ransomware scan during the restore process. This second scan remediates infected files and quarantines ransomware that had been previously dormant before it has a chance to re-infect the production environment.
Another notable aspect of the Asigra Tigris is the Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR). CDR is an innovative feature that deconstructs documents and strips them of any potentially malicious code. Once the malicious codes are cleared, the file is reconstructed back into a functional file without the embedded threat. CDR is relatively new to security practices and is typically deployed at the gateway to catch incoming files. Nevertheless, it only takes one file getting past a company’s “secure” front door to start an attack. Asigra Tigris is leading in secure backups by including CDR as part of the backup and restore process to ensure that backed up or recovered files are safe.
Asigra SaaSBACKUP was developed to deliver protection for business users across the widest range of SaaS applications, including apps in the areas of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Content Management System (CMS), Project Management, sales, marketing, eCommerce solutions and much more.
The new SaaSBACKUP platform provides a multitude of advanced features. One of the notable features include MultiSaaS Support. SaaSBACKUP is designed to protect data across a multitude of SaaS environments, ensuring 24x7x365 protection of business data. When it comes to deployment, SaaSBACKUP provides support for small to mass deployment across hundreds or thousands of SaaS application users in a fast and simple way simultaneously for immediate and consistent protection.
A common challenge that companies usually face with most backup storage providers is insufficient storage capacity. Asigra addresses this pain point by allowing companies to own their storage repository, own the data and in case they don’t have one, Asigra leverages its relationship with select partners to find the best option for its customers. Furthermore, Asigra also has a simple Pay Per Use Model, wherein customers pay only for what they use. That is, per user, per app, per month.
Unique in the data protection space, SaaSBACKUP is a True Platform as a Service (PaaS) that is turnkey and requires no infrastructure installation. Additionally, all maintenance is updated by Asigra and managed in the cloud. The platform is secure by design, built from the ground up with integrated security, including Multifactor Authentication (MFA) and Multiperson Approvals (MPA) to protect against unauthorized acts due to credential theft, user error or insider threat. The platform features military-grade encryption with FIPS 140-2 certification to protect data at the highest security and compliance levels.
Developed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Asigra partners will ultimately have access to a software development kit (SDK). The SDK enables rapid SaaS application connector growth, allowing partners to continually add new SaaS app connectors as needs arise. Regarding the backup repository, MSPs will select their own storage environment, including AWS or any other S3-compatible cloud storage platform. Complementary to traditional on-premise backup solutions, there is no need to rip and replace existing software as the solution is additive, bringing new revenue to partners. “We are now enabling partners to sign up on our website to become a launch partner with SaaSBACKUPSM,” says Eric.
Backed by a highly-experienced team of professionals with the right attitude, skills, and qualifications, Asigra puts the best interest of its customers first and ensures continued growth of the business. Moving forward, as the next step the company further plans to expand SaaSBACKUP, providing tremendous growth and the subsequent integration of its two solutions to manage all its customers’ backup through one unified platform. With a strong value proposition in place, Asigra is all set to stay ahead of the curve by continually reinventing and enhancing its products and redefine the future of ransomware security and backup.
Pull Quote: “What drives the best outcomes for our clients is listening to their needs and building unique capabilities, which enhances their data protection to ensure a clean data recovery,”
Description of the company: Based out of Toronto, Asigra is an award-winning company that offers agentless enterprise cloud backup & recovery platforms that proactively hunt ransomware. Founded by David Farajun in 1986, Asigra provides organizations around the world the ability to securely backup and restore their data through a network of partners who deliver cloud backup and recovery services as public, private and/or hybrid deployments.
Company Name: Asigra
Founding Year: 1986
Office Locations: Toronto
Official Website of the company: www.asigra.com
Name of the Featured Leader: Eric Simmons
Designation of the Leader: CEO.
