THE SERVICES AIR GAP
When the same people, credentials and tools run production and backup, one breach takes both. IronFell is deliberately separate.
The risk
Diagram. One compromised admin account, phished, reused or stolen from a remote tool, gives an attacker access to your MSP or in-house IT team. Those same people, credentials and tools run both your production systems and your backups, so both are encrypted. One key opens both.
One compromised admin account
phished, reused or stolen from a remote tool
Your MSP or in-house IT team
Same people · same credentials · same tools
Production
ENCRYPTEDBackups
ENCRYPTED30%
of breaches now involve a third party, double the year before
Source: Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2025 (opens in a new tab). Statistic 1 of 4.
94%
of ransomware victims say attackers went after their backups. 57% succeeded
Source: Sophos State of Ransomware 2024 (opens in a new tab). Statistic 2 of 4.
8×
higher recovery costs when attackers compromise the backups
Source: Sophos State of Ransomware 2024 (opens in a new tab). Statistic 3 of 4.
1,500
businesses hit through a single compromised MSP tool
Source: Kaseya, July 2021 (opens in a new tab). Statistic 4 of 4.
A Danish hosting provider, 2023. Ransomware encrypted production and every backup. Most customers lost all their data.
Source: BleepingComputer (opens in a new tab)
The answer
Runs production
Owns recovery
A technical air gap separates your backup data from production. A Services Air Gap goes further: it separates the people, credentials and tools as well. Your provider keeps running production. IronFell owns recovery. If production is ever compromised, your recovery isn't.
Regulation
The UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is bringing managed service providers into regulatory scope, because their trusted access makes them an increasingly attractive target. Read the UK Government factsheet (opens in a new tab).
In the EU, NIS2 (supply-chain risk) and DORA (ICT concentration risk) push in the same direction.
Find the gaps in your backup and recovery in about three minutes. Instant score, no sign-up needed.
Questions
Yes. Nothing changes for production. We take ownership of backup and recovery only.
Only what backup needs, with least-privilege, separately managed credentials that your production admins don't hold.
Yes. Restore testing is built into every managed tier, and you can run self-service restores from the portal at any time.
Your backups are always yours to export. See IronFell Migrate.
