How does a physical switch prevent you from writing backups of infested machines? Most organizations don't realize they are infected until they can't open any of their files.

Presumably one has rolling backups. Something line N backup drives, and every day you back up to the next one in line. Then there are rolling monthly backups, etc. The idea is hopefully you notice the problem before all are corrupted.

With the way I understand ransomware works, merely connecting a backup to the system will corrupt it. This is where a write-enable switch really comes into play, it cannot corrupt the backup when you're trying to restore from it. And if you have online archival databases, they can't be corrupted, either. After all, how much of your company data really needs to be writable? Certainly not last week's payroll records.

With append-only incremental backup systems, enforced by hardware, it'll take a lot longer to need to recycle the backups and risk them. Tape backup already does this inherently.

Another thing you can do with a backup drive, is attempt to read it from a clean system that has never been connected to the network. If you can read it, it isn't corrupted. Then, have a process where once a week see if the backup can be read. Then your worst case is a week lost.

First, adding manual steps to backups is a terrible idea. People already don't do them (which, since you missed it, you should know is actually the problem), and you're suggesting making them error-prone and manual.

Second, where is this idea coming from that corrupted backups are the issue? You're solving a problem that doesn't exist and creating a real one.

> Second, where is this idea coming from that corrupted backups are the issue?

When I read about how ransomware encrypted every drive attached to it, and encrypted the backup drives when they were attached. This was why the ransomware waited some length of time before shutting off access to the user - they wanted to get the backup drives encrypted, too.

> You're solving a problem that doesn't exist

Now you know!

Ah, you're talking about home user backups, then sure. I was confused because I thought we were talking about corporate backups and no corporation which does backups does them anything like how you're describing them.

And the guy required to set that all up is 100K.

I'm not sure what company you work for, but I'd be happy set up a button and run a wire to the case for them for only $99K.

If you meant write some software to activate the switch, that kinda misses the point!