Modernizing the backup environment and keeping backups secure play an essential role in protecting business-critical data against rising threats.
In an increasingly data-driven world, legacy backup systems and strategies no longer provide adequate data protection. Tools designed for conventional on-premises backup are poorly suited for protecting data spread across multiple data centers, cloud platforms, edge servers and endpoint devices. As a result, many organizations are experiencing high failure rates that leave critical data unprotected and vulnerable to cyberattacks specifically targeting backup repositories.
Recent research illustrates the weakness. According to various studies, 58 percent to 60 percent of jobs fail, and nearly a fifth of all data globally is not backed up at all. About 50 percent of data recovery efforts fail, meaning that they cannot be used to restore systems during a crisis. More than 93 percent of ransomware attacks now target backups to limit victims’ ability to recover from those events.
The research shows that legacy approaches to backup do not support the needs of modern IT workloads. Organizations need to modernize their backup and recovery operations to avoid business disruption in the event of a ransomware attack or other data loss event.
Elements of a Backup Modernization Strategy
Full system backups are notoriously resource-intensive and time-consuming. Many backup failures result from overrunning the allocated backup window. Incremental backups speed things up by only capturing changes made since the last backup. This minimizes the impact on network and storage resources and reduces the risk of backup failures.
Automated testing features ensure that all data and applications can be recovered if there is a disruption. Backup automation also ensures that data is regularly and consistently backed up, reducing the risk of data loss and downtime. Most importantly, it eliminates error-prone manual processes and relieves IT staff of a great deal of management burden. Backups occur automatically on a scheduled basis, and data is automatically compressed, deduplicated and encrypted.
Cloud backup should be an essential element of any modernization strategy. Besides providing virtually limitless storage capacity, cloud-based backup makes it easier to restore data in the event of a ransomware attack, server crash or some other disruptive event. In many cases, the ideal approach would be to combine cloud-based backups with on-premises solutions in a hybrid environment. In this way, organizations can create local backups for quick restores and offsite backups for disaster recovery. It also ensures data redundancy and reduces the risk of data loss.
Security Weaknesses of Legacy Backups
Given the extreme threat of ransomware, backup modernization efforts must also incorporate strong security controls. Legacy backup systems have several common vulnerabilities that make them ideal targets for malicious actors.
For example, legacy backups typically use open storage protocols that allow direct access to shared storage resources. This elevated access creates an opening hackers can exploit to encrypt, steal and manipulate data. Ransomware attackers also actively seek out organizations with network-connected backups. Once they gain access via an endpoint device, attackers can move laterally through the network to encrypt or wipe backup files.
Because traditional approaches to backup do not provide sufficient security, attackers often target them specifically to exploit their weaknesses. To protect backup storage from ransomware attacks, it is crucial to implement a combination of preventive and proactive security measures.
Organizations should utilize intrusion detection and prevention systems, security information and event management tools, and log analysis to detect unauthorized access attempts or suspicious activities related to backups. Administrators should regularly review logs and perform security audits to ensure compliance and identify any vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention.
Protecting Backups from Unauthorized Access
Strong passwords, multifactor authentication and role-based access controls limit who can access or modify backups. Additionally, monitoring and auditing mechanisms can be used to track user activities and detect suspicious or unauthorized access attempts. Organizations should also regularly review and update access privileges, revoking unused or unnecessary privileges to minimize vulnerabilities.
Modern backup strategies should incorporate immutable backup technology, which cannot be altered or deleted, even by an administrator. Immutable backups ensure that there’s an untouched version of data that is always recoverable when needed. It is a critical component of the industry-standard 3-2-1 backup method — make three backup copies of data using two different media types with one immutable copy that’s isolated from the corporate network.
Encrypting backup data helps protect it in the event of data loss or theft. It’s also a requirement for compliance with regulations such as PCI-DSS and HIPAA. Organizations should use strong, industry-standard cryptography and make sure the cryptographic keys are properly managed. Encrypting both the backup data and the transmission channels mitigates the risk of unauthorized access, even if the backups are compromised.
Partnering for Success
Safeguarding backups gives organizations a chance to bounce back from ransomware attacks and other data loss incidents. However, few organizations have the skills or resources to design, plan and implement a modern backup system. Partnering with a managed services provider gives organizations access to data protection experts who can help modernize and secure critical backup systems.
