Cybercrime has become commonplace in the digital world. Now everyone must secure their computer systems like “Fort Knox” to avoid dealing with the consequences of cyberthreats. Now a days, your computers must be on a supported operating system to receive security updates and patches. You need the best firewalls and end-point protection to continue combating incoming viruses and malware. Multifactor authentication has now become the gold standard.
With all the defenses in place, one never knows when the next cyber actor (aka hacker) is going to outsmart the latest protections. Don’t overlook the most basic tool: you must have a good cloud backup system in place so if all else fails, you have a copy of your necessary data at hand.
Here are seven key features of an effective cloud backup service.
- Encryption Level
Your cloud backup should have at least 128-bit AES encryption. Even with a supercomputer, it would take 1 billion, billion years to crack the 128-bit AES key using brute force.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) FIPS 140-2 encryption certification
For additional security and peace of mind, the cloud backup service should be NIST FIPS 140-2-certified. This certification confirms the highest level of security and compliance for data both in-flight (going over the internet) and at rest (stored at a data center).
- Automatic Backup and Verification
The backups should be automatic to avoid guesswork and be burden-free. In addition, you want a company that provides notifications (email, text) of successful and/or failed backups.
- Retention and Generation Policy
What is the retention and generation policy that the cloud backup service provides? One cloud copy of your data is not enough to recover from a ransomware attack. A cloud backup provider should have at least 30 previous days (retention) of your data. In addition to the timed retention, the cloud service should also keep four generations (modifications) of the data. A “generation” is the copy of the file just before the last edit occurred. The latest four versions of a file are recommended.
- State-of-the-Art Data Centers
You want your data stored at state-of-the-art data centers with advanced security and redundant technology so if a failure occurs, you won’t notice it on your end. Ongoing risk analysis should be performed on systems at the data centers for data integrity and recoverability. The systems should also have a rollback feature, so if there is an attack of malicious encryption or deletion of data, it can be restored to its previous state.
- Don’t Forget About Hosted Data
Not all cloud application hosting platforms provide backup of hosted data. Don’t be at a loss if your hosted server goes down. Make sure you have a separate cloud backup provider to securely store your hosted data.
- Customer Support
Look for a cloud backup provider with experience. You want a company whose technical support staff has restored millions of files from server crashes, lost data files, and ransomware attacks. You also want a company that is easy to contact during a crisis.
Most small to medium businesses (SMB) are underprepared for the cyberthreats that are lurking. Businesses need a secure and reliable cloud backup service in place so if an attack hits, the data is recoverable. Turn to DataHEALTH who has over 20 years of cloud backup experience to provide you with the service you need.
Contact DataHEALTH today at 888-656-3282, Option 1 to sign up for cloud backup service.
