Cybersecurity is tantamount to your business’ success. In fact, it’s reported that over 90% of companies have been pushed to file for bankruptcy in the wake of a cyber-attack. These attacks are designed to steal your confidential and vital data and disrupt your online business. What’s more, is that these criminals have no scruples for ransoming your data to get a fat payout. For this reason, planning for disaster should be a major part of your security defence strategy. Having your data stored in a trusted, secure cloud back up is the smart thing to do.
If you’re already signed up with a cloud-based backup system then you’re halfway there. The question now is, how secure is your cloud back-up?
Hackers and cybercriminals tactics continue to evolve with the changes in internet security and attacking back-up systems is one of them. Now, ransomware has been created to target the best of backup systems, making traditional methods of backup obsolete.
As times change, business owners need to increase their security to combat the threats of cybercriminals or fall prey to an attack leading to expensive downtime, loss of clients’ trust, data loss, and a tarnished reputation. Not to mention the cost in IT and legal fees to solve the problem fast.
If you want to mitigate a crisis of a cyber-attack, then you should use these 5 attributes of a secure backup plan.
Table of Contents
1. Make Security a Priority
The more progressive the internet becomes about cybersecurity the more versatile cybercriminals become at thwarting those security measures. Therefore as a business owner you cannot shirk on your responsibility to make security a top priority.
That means using reliable top of the line secure applications to ensure that your servers, data and business are kept out of the hands of hackers, cybercriminals and even your biggest competition.
That’s right cybercrime has spread beyond hackers with the creation of ransomware that can be purchased by anyone with malicious intent towards a business. Cyber terrorism is at an all-time high with cyber threats, data-espionage, and ransom totalling a whopping $2 billion dollars in 2019.
With that in mind, you cannot cut costs with security plans and your back-up systems. You need to secure the top of the line back-up solutions that include data protection plans to ensure that your business is safe from would-be cyber-terrorist. A weak backup solution will only guarantee a false sense of security because they don’t include the components to thwart attacks launched at backup systems.
When choosing your backup solution to ensure that it includes an ironclad security plan with data protection. This guarantees a multilayer security aspect that your business will need in the event of a breach. You need all-hands-on-deck when it comes to your backup solution. Security is a priority aspect of any good backup solution.
2. Use a Ransom Bouncer
As we said earlier your backup system needs to have added security in order to thwart any threats to the backup itself. That’s where a ransom bouncer comes into play. A ransom bouncer uses artificial technology to access malicious threats and bounce them before they can breach the system and cause any damage.
Older security software doesn’t have this feature and so if your current backup solution is an offsite backup in the traditional sense your data may be vulnerable to an attack at these sites. Using a cloud-based backup solution with this added layer of security is the perfect multilayer defence mechanism your business needs to ensure that data remains intact and secure.
You also want to check that your backup solution, specialized security software and anti-virus applications work in tandem and harmony with each other. This ensures that one solution isn’t hindering the other and all come together to protect your business.
3. A One-Size Fits All Solution
Have a cloud-based backup that can do it all. Your business needs the entire kit and caboodle to be secured. This includes your physical and virtual systems, cloud services, and all mobile devices. So, your backup solution must integrate multiple advanced security technologies that work in harmony with each other.
A perfect system will function so that each individual defence system will work autonomous but side by side together to ensure that all of your bases are covered with multiple levels of security. With this in place, your system will be able to handle any type of cyber threat.
Sometimes even the best defence can be dismantled so in the event that the worst-case scenario happens your backup solution should include a data recovery plan as well.
Solutions that work like this employ a Secure Development Life Cycle (SDLC), any backup solution that uses this key feature has security as a priority.
4. Consider Using Progressive Technologies
Get a backup solution that uses blockchain technology. As new technology is rolled out it’s best to go with a backup solution that rolls with the times. Precisely, blockchain integrates sophisticated cryptographic fingerprinting to make it harder to break the code of the data it encrypts. In the case of cloud-based backup solutions, blockchain can ensure data is authentic and unaffected – which guarantees it is safe to use. If your business follows strict compliance for verifiable data then using a backup solution with blockchain integration will pledge the integrity of the data.
5. Secure Off-site Cloud Storage
While cybercriminals, hackers, and ransoms pose a significant threat, you still have to contend with other threats in natural disasters and common human error. For this reason, using an off-site cloud-based backup is crucial. This ensure that your data remains secure and accessible in the event of a calamity.
Upgrades to cloud backup ensures that there are tighter security measures, and the possibility to replicate data to be stored in multiple places like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. When you have more than one copies of your backup in multiple locations, you ensure that your site is always safe in the event that something goes wrong.
Note: To prevent gratuitous fines, be sure your data centre housing your back-up is compliant with EU regulations. Namely, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO 27-001 and HIPAA.
Final Thoughts
The smart business employs tight security measures and backup solutions to protect their brand, customer and company data, revenue, and business reputation.
There is no question that having a secure backup solution is a compulsory feature to your security detail. Ensure that your hosting provider has the best options available to you.
The alternative can be very costly and could ruin your business in a crushing finality that closes its doors.
When shown by the five attributes listed above of the most secure backup solution, businesses will enjoy a data protection solution fixed on the offence with cutting-edge security features incorporated at every level.