HYCU announces service to help firms gauge ransomware readiness

An online initiative has just launched, designed to help organisations understand and quantify how well prepared they are (or indeed aren’t) for a ransomware attack. It will also tell them what steps need to be taken to improve their ability to recover effectively in the event of such an attack.

The initiative, known as R-Score, is available now. It uses entered data to assess an organisation’s preparedness to repel and recover from ransomware attacks across five key categories: Backup Process, Backup Infrastructure, Security and Networking, Restore Processes, and Disaster Recovery.

Once the questions are answered, an R-Score is generated. This R-Score number falls within the range of 0 to 1000, and is meant to illustrate the level of an organisation’s preparedness in a similar way that a credit score expresses an individual’s creditworthiness.

As well as their score, users will be informed of the steps they could take to improve their score. A free consultation with one of the partners involved in R-Score will be offered to provide a better understanding of what measures and steps could be taken to improve an organisation’s overall R-Score.

The R-Score initiative has been led by multi-cloud backup and recovery services provider HYCU, which said the service is the culmination of months of work with leading data protection and cybersecurity experts and partners. These partners include Carahsoft, FireEye Mandiant and SADA, along with the Cybersecurity Graduate Program at Boston College, Massachusetts.

With ransomware attacks growing, HYCU Founder and Chief Executive Simon Taylor argued that it is merely a matter of time before the majority of companies will find themselves faced with a ransomware recovery incident.

“As much as all of us in technology would like to believe we can eliminate ransomware attacks, the focus needs to be on rallying the industry around a way of quantifying and measuring what steps can, and should, be taken to avoid having to pay exorbitant ransoms for companies to get their data back. That is why we are excited to be founding members announcing R-Score,” Taylor said.

FireEye Mandiant Chief Executive Kevin Mandia claimed that ransomware has reached intolerable levels and is a risk that every company needs to address.

“R-Score is designed to provide a framework to measure resiliency and recovery. These are critical components to combatting ransomware actors and giving business leaders the confidence that they are prepared to operate in the current threat environment,” he said.

No user data or information related to generating the initial R-Score is stored or captured in any user-identifiable form, and there is no sales lead generation sign-up, according to HYCU.