Danish hosting firms CloudNordic and AzeroCloud have suffered ransomware attacks, causing the loss of the majority of customer data and forcing the hosting providers to shut down all systems, including websites, email, and customer sites.
  • @[email protected]
    124•9 months ago

    What’s the point of primary and secondary backups if they can be accessed with the same credentials on the same network

    • @[email protected]
      16•9 months ago

      They weren’t normally on the same network, but were accidentally put on the same network during migration.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•9 months ago

      What’s the correct way to implement it so that it can still be automated? Credentials that can write new backups but not delete existing ones?

      • @[email protected]English
        30•9 months ago

        I don’t know if it is the „correct“ way but I do it the other way around. I have a server and a backup server. Server user can‘t even see backup server but packs a backup, backup server pulls the data with read only access, main server deletes backup, done.

      • VerifiablyMrWonka
        14•9 months ago

        For an organisation hosting as many companies data as this one I’d expect automated tape at a minimum. Of course, if the attacker had the time to start messing with the tape that’s lost as well but it’s unlikely.

        • @[email protected]
          3•9 months ago

          It depends what’s the pricing. For example ovh didn’t keep any extra backup when their datacenter took fire. But if a customer paid for backup, it was kept off-site and was recovered

          It might be even pretending to be a big hosting company when they’re actually renting a dozen deds from a big player, much cheaper than maintaining a data center with 99.999% uptime

      • rentar42
        7•9 months ago

        Fundamentally there’s no need for the user/account that saves the backup somewhere to be able to read let alone change/delete it.

        So ideally you have “write-only” credentials that can only append/add new files.

        How exactly that is implemented depends on the tech. S3 and S3 compatible systems can often be configured that data straight up can’t be deleted from a bucket at all.

      • @[email protected]
        1•9 months ago

        i use immutable objects on backblaze b2

        from command line using their tool is something like b2 sync SOURCE BUCKET

        and from the bucket setting disable object deletion

        also borgbase allows this, backups can be created but deletions/overwrites are not permanent (unless you enabled them)

  • @[email protected]
    62•9 months ago

    Time and time again, data hosting providers are proving that local backups not connected to the internet are way better than storing in the cloud.

    • @[email protected]
      39•9 months ago

      The 3-2-1 backup strategy: “Three copies are made of the data to be protected, the copies are stored on two different types of storage media and one copy of the data is sent off site.”

    • IWantToFuckSpez
      12•9 months ago

      Any redundant backup strategy uses both. They both have inherent data loss risks. Local backups are great, but unless you store them in a bunker they are still at risk to fire, theft, vandalism and natural disasters. A good backup strategy stores copies in at least three locations. Local, off-site and the cloud. Off-site backups are backups you can physically retrieve. Like tapes stored in a vault in another city.

  • Max_PowerEnglish
    33•9 months ago

    Now that you mention fucking incompetence, I need to verify my 3-2-1 backup strategy is correctly implemented. Thanks for the reminder, CloudNordic and AzeroCloud!

  • @[email protected]English
    23•9 months ago

    Danish hosting firms CloudNordic and AzeroCloud have suffered ransomware attacks, causing the loss of the majority of customer data and forcing the hosting providers to shut down all systems, including websites, email, and customer sites.

  • @[email protected]
    14•9 months ago

    I feel really bad for everyone involved - customers and staff. The human cost in this is huge.

    Yes, there’s a lot of criticism of backup strategies here, but I bet most of us who deal with this professionally have knowledge of systems that would also be vulnerable to malicious attack, and that’s only the shortcomings we know about. Audits and pentesting are great, but not infallable and one tiny mistake can expose everything. If we were all as good as we think we are, ransomware wouldn’t be a thing.

    • @[email protected]
      5•9 months ago

      I think that people generally overestimate how much money tech companies like this one actually make. Their profits are tiny. A lot of the time, tech companies run on investment money, and can’t actually turn a profit. They wait for the big acquisition or IPO payday. So if you think you’re actually gonna get 100k off them, good luck. Sometimes they’re barely keeping the lights on.

  • Treczoks
    10•9 months ago

    Put all the data in the cloud, they said. It will all be save and handled by professionals!

      • exuEnglish
        6•9 months ago

        I think they’re aware of that

        Martin Haslund Johansson, the director of Azerocloud and CloudNordic, stated that he does not expect customers to be left with them when the recovery is finally completed.

        • @[email protected]
          10•9 months ago

          The customers are already lost:

          1. pay the expensive ransom, if the bad actor gives them the decryption key, customers are relieved but still pissed, will take the data and move to somewhere else with a big FO. Go out of business.

          2. don’t pay the ransom, customers are pissed and move to somewhere else with a big FO. Go out of business.

    • @floofloofOPEnglish
      6•9 months ago

      Sounds like they had all their backups online, instead of keeping offline copies. It’s a reminder that everyone needs at least one backup that isn’t connected to any computer. It’s also a reminder that “the cloud” should not be the only place you keep your data, because hosting providers are targets for this stuff and you don’t know how careful they are.