Since the era of floppy disks, data backup has been a crucial necessity. Data loss incidents arise from various mishaps, such as viruses and hard drive crashes. It’s likely that nearly everyone who uses any form of technology has experienced data loss at least once.
The UK experiences approximately 100,000 hard drive crashes each week, while roughly 20% of SMBs suffer data loss from significant disasters every five years. This has resulted in the expansion of a resilient cloud backup market, which continues to thrive.
Data backup has undergone a significant change in recent years, particularly with regards to security. Data backup to avoid losing information is no longer sufficient; it has evolved into a broader concept of data protection.
What does this mean?
As backups become more vulnerable to threats like sleeper ransomware and supply chain attacks, they require increased cybersecurity protection. Although cloud-based backup solutions are convenient, accessible, and effective, certain security measures must be taken into account when using an online service.
When devising a backup and recovery plan, businesses must prioritise data protection and choose tools that can guard against the rising number of threats.
Some of the modern threats to data backups include:
- Data Center Outage: The “cloud” basically means data on a server. That server is internet accessible. Those servers can crash. Data centers holding the servers can also have outages.
- Sleeper Ransomware: This type of ransomware stays silent after infecting a device. The goal is to have it infect all backups. Then, when it’s activated, the victim doesn’t have a clean backup to restore.
- Supply Chain Attacks: Supply chain attacks have been growing. They include attacks on cloud vendors that companies use. Those vendors suffer a cyberattack that then spreads throughout their clients.
- Misconfiguration: Misconfiguration of security settings can be a problem. It can allow attackers to gain access to cloud storage. Those attackers can then download and delete files as they like.
What to Look for in a Data Protection Backup System
Merely backing up data is insufficient. It’s imperative to ensure that the backup application used offers sufficient data protection. When evaluating a backup solution, consider the following factors:
Ransomware Prevention
Ransomware can spread throughout a network to infect any data that exists. This includes data on computers, servers, and mobile devices. It also includes data in cloud platforms syncing with those devices.
95% of ransomware attacks also try to infect data backup systems.
It’s important that any data backup solution you use have protection from ransomware. This type of feature restricts automated file changes that can happen to documents.
Continuous Data Protection
Continuous data protection is a feature that will back up files as users make changes. This differs from systems that back up on a schedule, such as once per day.
Continuous data protection ensures that the system captures the latest file changes. This mitigates data loss that can occur if a system crashes before the next backup. With the speed of data generation these days, losing a day’s worth of data can be very costly.
Threat Identification
Data protection incorporates proactive measures to protect files. Look for threat identification functions in a backup service. Threat identification is a type of malware and virus prevention tool.
It looks for malware in new and existing backups. This helps stop sleeper ransomware and similar malware from infecting all backups.
Zero-Trust Tactics
Cybersecurity professionals around the world promote zero-trust security measures. This includes measures such as multi-factor authentication and application safelisting.
A zero-trust approach holds that all users and applications need ongoing authentication. So, just because a user is logged into the system today, doesn’t mean they are completely trusted.
Some of the zero-trust features to look for include:
- Multi-factor authentication
- Distinct file and folder permissions
- Contextual authentication
- Verification of permissions for file changes
Backup Redundancy
If you back up to a USB drive or CD, you have one copy of those files. If something happens to that copy, you could experience data loss.
Cloud backup providers should have backup redundancy in place. This means that the server holding your data mirrors that data to another server. This prevents data loss in the case of a server crash, natural disaster, or cyberattack.
Air Gapping for More Sensitive Data
Air gapping is a system that keeps a copy of your data offline or separated in another way. This would entail making a second backup copy of your data. Then, putting it on another server. A server disconnected from external sources.
This is a feature that you may want to seek out if you deal with highly sensitive data. It helps to ensure that you have at least one other copy of your backup. A copy walled off from common internet-based attacks.
Need Help With Secure Backup & Data Protection Solutions?
Have you updated your backup process for today’s threats? Here at Dara IT we have tried and tested Data Protection systems in place for all of our customers.
We help organisations follow the 3-2-1 backup rule which forms part of the National Cyber Security Centre’s 10 steps to Cyber Security.
Why not schedule a chat to find out how we can help.
If you aren’t ready to schedule a call but would like to learn more about email risks and security, we recommend the following articles: