Barnstable Police Department Uses Reduxio BackDating

Barnstable Police Department, a 130-person team in a small tourist town, became one of the average 4,000 victims per day of a ransomware attack.

With a mission of public safety and policing, Barnstable had deployed Reduxio Systems Ltd storage solutions, including the BackDating technology, in case of just such a cyber threat. Despite the immediate risk and costly resolution, Reduxio and Barnstable were able to completely avoid any data loss and complete a full systems recovery, ransom unpaid, within 30 minutes.

According to the US Department of Justice, ransomware is the fastest growing malware threat, targeting victims of all types. The US has seen an approximate 300% increase in ransomware attacks since 2015. The per incident cost for lost productivity, resources to recover files, and the payment average about $333,000 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Barnstable P.D.’s stated mission is “[commitment] to preserving the lives, property and rights of all our citizens through proactive policing strategies.”

As part of its proactive program, Barnstable P.D. reviewed its DR plans and security protocols to determine how quickly the department could recover in the event of an outage. Considering its security, DR and storage capacity concerns, Barnstable P.D. selected Reduxio’s HX550 storage systems and BackDating to improve recovery times, speed up operations and simplify access to important applications for patrol officers and staff. HX550 system became the primary storage solution with hundreds of virtual application servers and desktops migrated from the existing legacy system. BackDating offers up to one-second recovery intervals, allowing Barnstable P.D to restore its data to a single second before the hack with a single click.

“Within minutes of migrating data to Reduxio’s storage system, we knew we had made the right choice,” said Craig Hurwitz, IT coordinator, Barnstable P.D.. “I was immediately confident that with the robust storage and data protection solution from Reduxio our systems would be protected and could be recovered quickly in the case of an attack.“

“The enablement of our police force and management of our data is of the utmost importance when considering public safety. It is our mission to be proactive and having a solution in place that we were confident would protect our team and our town was an important and worthy investment this year,” said Paul MacDonald, chief of police, Barnstable P.D.

Barnstable deployed Reduxio in July 2016. Two months later the department responded to a ransomware assault, proving that attacks are happening to every business. The Barnstable P.D credits Reduxio solutions for preventing data loss and ensuring a speedy recovery with no impact on public safety during its recent hack.

Barnstable P.D. relies on the Reduxio storage systems to support its computer-aided dispatch system, mobile data, records management, field reports and operations from the department HQs and sub-stations. Public safety services including bail posting, license plate lookup, surveillance, training, detective work and standard email are running on separate VMs supporting staff and patrol officers on foot, bikes and boats to connect back with the application system through mobile devices and laptops.

“Along with death and taxes, one new certainty in life is getting hacked. It was disclosed that even the NSA‘s network was recently breached. No matter how sophisticated your security protocols are, there will always be intruders trying to access your organization’s data,” said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing and corporate strategy office, Reduxio. “We are thrilled for the positive outcomes at Barnstable P.D. and that Reduxio was able to prevent data loss and deliver a rapid recovery.“