City of Milpitas, CA, Deploys BackupAssist CryptoSafeGuard

BackupAssist, a trading name of Cortex I.T. Labs Pty Ltd and a provider of automated Windows server backup and recovery software for SMBs, announced that the City of Milpitas, CA, has deployed its CryptoSafeGuard software to protect its data and city services from a ransomware attack.

The City of Milpitas is a California-based public services organization serving a progressive community that is an integral part of the high tech Silicon Valley. Its information services department provides key services to all City departments including strategic automation planning, coordination of system procurement and implementation, and management of technology projects to fulfill customer-defined functional requirements. The department is also responsible for developing and maintaining the City’s technical architecture and infrastructure, and providing implementation for and support of all automated data communications systems.

Since the City of Milpitas is a public services organization that depends on support from taxpayer dollars, the information services department needed to exercise caution in budget allocation when considering new services and solutions. Despite lacking an enterprise-sized budget, the City still needed to find a way to protect the organization and its employees against potential ransomware attacks. 

Said Mike Luu, information services director, City of Milpitas: “We are only too well aware of the rapid proliferation in the type of malicious software that, if not properly prepared for, could block access to the City’s computers and data for employees while disrupting City services for residents.“

Knowing his department would be negligent if it didn’t find an effective way to invest in trustworthy ransomware protection, Luu was determined to identify a dependable solution that was also cost-effective. Failure to do so quickly would put the City of Milpitas at risk of a hacker demanding payment of a large sum in order to regain access to the City’s sensitive files, information and services.

“The risk of a ransomware attack and having to pay a ransom fee was not a chance we could take in an organization like ours,” said Luu.  “I’ve seen colleagues in other organizations face this exact situation after being targeted by ransomware hackers, and I was determined to do whatever I could to ensure that the City of Milpitas wouldn’t become the next victim.“

After considering various solutions, Luu selected CryptoSafeGuard from BackupAssist. One of the features that helped Luu differentiate CryptoSafeGuard from other solutions is the fact that it could be easily integrated with the organization’s several existing layers of security products-without investing too many of the city’s resources. For example, the tools from BackupAssist not only work on Windows servers, but also complement anti-malware solutions, firewalls, and endpoint security.

The backup and DR tools from BackupAssist helped to deliver the extra protection and BC that the City of Milpitas needed. By complementing existing anti-malware solutions, CryptoSafeGuard added another layer of data-level detection, providing additional shielding for critical backups.

“Robust enough to stop the backup of encrypted files and able to prevent backups from becoming encrypted, CryptoSafeGuard delivered on its promises at a price that we could feel good about,” said Luu. “In short, BackupAssist is active, simple, affordable, and non-intrusive. Even if ransomware were to infect our system, the City’s backups won’t be compromised now-they will be safeguarded for easy data recovery.“

“The City of Milpitas now benefits fromCryptoSafeGuard’s multi-stage defense system to protect backups from ransomware even if they are attacked. The first stage of defense is protection. The solution’s features are designed to stop ransomware corrupting the city’s backups. The second stage is detection. BackupAssist scans city systems to detect ransomware activities in source files intended for backup. Finally, the third stage is responsiveness. Once the solution identifies a threat, it alerts Mike and his team about the problem via email and SMS. Finally, CryptoSafeGuard also blocks future backup jobs from backing up corrupted files, so that the damage doesn’t spread,” said Linus Chang, CEO, BackupAssist.  “With these proactive measures in place, Mike and his team know that potential perpetrators will be stopped dead in their tracks.“