Cloud Backup: 5 Tips To Protect Your Company From Cyber Attacks

Cyber ​​attacks are increasing every year and are becoming more sophisticated. The recent cases of ransomware that have blocked the work of large companies demonstrate this: potentially, everyone can be a victim of cybercriminals. In such a context, Cloud backup is one of the most essential and straightforward weapons to protect your work.

Backup in the Cloud allows you to protect your data and restore them in a short time.

The importance of a quality Cloud backup becomes even more important if you consider the indications of the GDPR: companies that process sensitive data must protect them from any attacks and data breaches. Otherwise, the risks of very high fines are added to the material and image damage caused by a virus or ransomware.

The reference standards of ISO 27001 certification also support the importance of establishing efficient backup policies to defend data and business operations.

But how exactly does Cloud backup work, and how can it become one of the pillars of any cyber attack defense strategy?

What is Cloud Backup?

The term backup is now in everyday use for computer science and technology. Backing up your images, files, folders, and data is essential to keep your most important information safe from breakdowns, human errors, and cyber attacks.

Backup procedures allow you to create copies of data that must be secured on storage devices other than the one on which they were generated. A local hardware-based backup solution is still at risk of breakdowns, fires, and theft.

On the other hand, Cloud backup provides secure storage spaces on an operator’s remote server. Choosing a Cloud backup service offered by a professional operator allows you to store and protect information within one or more secure and redundant Data Centers.

The advantages of archiving and backups in the Cloud

Storage and backup benefits in the Cloud can be summarized in a few critical points.

• data storage on the Cloud does not depend on local hardware: thus eliminating the risks and costs of purchasing, powering, and maintaining the equipment
• the space in the Cloud is scalable at any time according to the storage needs of the company
• during the transfer to the Cloud, the data is usually encrypted so as not to be readable by malicious people
• the backup can be set automatically and without complex procedures
• the persons authorized by the company can access the data in the Cloud from different devices and places at any time

Backup is essential in the event of a ransomware attack

Ransomware is one of the most common types of cyberattacks.

During an attack of this type, the hacker manages to overcome the normal defenses of the company and penetrate information systems, blocking the equipment or making company data inaccessible (with encryption systems). In many cases, a hefty ransom is required to get your data back.

In such a scenario, the company’s operations and image depend on the ability to restore all systems quickly.

If Cloud backup is part of a security plan from the start, a company can easily get rid of the ransomware and restore its data with little or no downtime.

How to choose a safe and efficient Cloud service

Individuals and companies that use cloud services are increasing more and more. According to the observatory of Milano, in 2020, the Cloud market in Italy grew by 20%, driven by the adoption of SaaS (Software as a Service) services to support remote work such as email, videoconferencing, archiving, and sharing.

When it comes to Cloud for businesses, it needs to change.

Often, companies also need to use the Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) type of services to directly share the network infrastructure of physical and storage servers installed at the provider’s Data Centers.

In this case, it is even more important to choose a provider that guarantees the storage volumes, performance, and types of the backups provided. Here are some things to consider.

1. the provider must provide the service through high-performance servers
2. the servers must be kept in secure, redundant data centers and always connected to the internet
3. your server network must always be accessible with maximum security and manageable through an easy-to-use control panel
4. the service must offer the ability to create snapshots of the Virtual Machines to be used as a recovery point
5. the Customer must be able to protect the data with an encrypted, compressed, and deduplicated Backup system with dedicated space.

More efficient backup with dedicated access bandwidth

The speed of service recovery is critical when choosing a cloud backup provider.

For this reason, companies should not underestimate an essential element in evaluating Cloud services: the access bandwidth.

The Cloud must be reached via the internet, and therefore, its efficiency also depends on the quality of connectivity which must offer guarantees on performance and reduced latency times. The services provided by the large global Cloud players do not include connectivity services. This implies that the operation is “best-effort,” i.e., without guaranteeing service quality.

The connection’s quality of Service (QoS) can only be guaranteed if the Cloud Provider also provides access to the network and TLC services, possibly on a network dedicated exclusively to companies.

In this case, the customer can also count on a dedicated connection that offers excellent latency, packet loss, and round-trip delay performance.

This is why choosing a single provider for Cloud and connectivity is essential, also from a cybersecurity perspective.

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