Use the 3-2-1 Backup Method to Protect Your Data

Backup, Backup and Recovery, Backup Strategies, Data Backup, Data Storage, Ophtek, , , , ,
28
Jan 2020

Hardware can easily become compromised, stolen or damaged. And this can leave you without crucial data. But the 3-2-1 backup method is here to help.

Data disasters are most often caused by hardware failure, human error or cyber-attacks. Regardless of the cause, your organization needs a good backup strategy in place. You need to be able to retrieve your data in the event of an emergency. Without a backup strategy you will struggle to recover and this will have a major impact on your productivity. And that’s why the 3-2-1 backup method has proved to be so popular with businesses.

Data protection has never been more important that today, so we’re going to take a look at how the 3-2-1 backup method can protect your data.

What is the 3-2-1 Backup Method?

The principle behind the 3-2-1 backup method lies in its name:

Let’s take a closer look at each part of the method to help you understand the thinking behind it:

  • Keeping at Least 3 Copies of Your Data: To keep just one backup copy of your data is careless. Say, for example, your data is compromised by ransomware. An option would be to retrieve your backup data from an external hard drive. But what if you discover this device has been damaged in some way? You need an alternative solution. And this could be accessing a USB drive or connecting to a cloud storage solution. The minimum number of copies you should keep is three, but there’s no maximum. You can keep three, five or fifty. 
  • Keeping 2 of these Copies on Local Devices: Onsite backups are essential for keeping your productivity in place. Data disasters are unpredictable and can have an instant impact. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have your backup data close to hand. This approach will allow you to quickly implement any compromised data and establish normal working practices. Again, it’s important to have more than one local backup available to safeguard against any technical issues. 
  • Keeping at Least 1 Copy Offsite: If you want to reap the benefits of a complete backup strategy you need to keep one copy offsite. Advances in cloud computing mean that it’s easier than ever to store data offsite. And this can pay dividends in the case of a local disaster. If, for example, you are hit by a hurricane or a flood, all your local backups could be damaged. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got three or three hundred. But if you keep at least one copy in the cloud you are ensuring comprehensive data protection is in place. 

Final Thoughts 

A good backup strategy is vital in protecting your data in the event of a data disaster. And it pays to be comprehensive in the manner in which you protect your data. The 3-2-1 backup method is the perfect way in which to achieve this.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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How to Plan for Better Disaster Recovery in IT

Backup and Recovery, Best Practices, Cloud Backup, Disaster Recovery, IT Best Practices, , ,
28
Aug 2018

Due to our reliance on data technology, good disaster recovery processes have never been more vital. However, how do you plan for better disaster recovery?

It may be a challenge, but you don’t need to feel apprehensive when trying to tackle this complex problem. And when it comes to disaster recovery, planning is the most important factor. If your IT systems fail then you need to start your recovery process as soon as possible and ensure it’s as effective as it can be. The sooner you can restore normal operations, the less your productivity is affected.

So, if you want to make sure your disaster recovery procedures are finely tuned, make sure you incorporate the following tips. They could be the difference between no IT infrastructure and one that can keep your organization functioning.

Have a Plan

The first step towards having a better disaster recovery plan is to have a plan. Unfortunately, many organizations find themselves too busy to worry about potential disasters and, instead, concentrate purely on the present. While this may help you with your immediate business objectives, it’s not going to help you in the case of an emergency. Therefore, starting work on a disaster recovery plan needs to be sooner rather than later.

Cost isn’t Everything

It’s understandable that budgets are essential when it comes to good business, but disaster recovery plans for IT infrastructure are a little different. Without a fully functioning IT service, it’s unlikely your organization is going to be able to trade at its full potential, if at all. And this is why you need to be careful when looking at the technology and services required for your data recovery. Naturally, you shouldn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money that could cripple your margins, but you also need a data recovery plan which can recover your IT infrastructure quickly and effectively.

Understand Your Recovery Objectives

Key to a good recovery process is understanding what data is crucial and how soon it’s required in the case of a data outage/loss. Objectives, of course, need to be achievable, so don’t burden yourself with unattainable goals such as ‘every worker to have access to emails within 10 minutes of a data disaster’. The best way to test your objectives and measure how attainable they are is through regular testing. This should prepare you for any future scenarios and guarantee that you know how to manage their impact.

Update Your Recovery Plan

If you’re lucky, your organization will manage to operate for a long time without experiencing any data disasters. However, this can lead to a dangerous sense of inertia creeping into your recovery processes. And, as we all know, technology moves at a rapid pace. Software and hardware can be replaced on a yearly basis and these new developments may not chime harmoniously with your existing recovery plan. Accordingly, your disaster recovery plan needs to be regularly reviewed to ensure that it’s current and matches your existing IT landscape.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Best Ways to Secure Your Backups

Backup, Backup and Recovery, Encryption, Password Security, Security, , ,
14
Jun 2018

Data backups are crucial when it comes to protecting your data; it’s even more important to ensure that your backups are kept secure and available.

For many people, having data backed up is enough. However, what they fail to understand is that a backup is not infallible. In fact, there are a whole range of issues that could affect the stability of a backup. And, if your organization is in the midst of a data disaster, the one factor above all else that you should be concentrating on is security. Your backup, after all, is your lifeline to resuming productivity, so it should be as secure as possible.

To get you started, we’re going to look at the five best ways to secure your backups:

  1. Password Protect Your Backups

At the very least, you have to make sure that your backups are password protected. While, yes, it’s possible for a password to be cracked, it still acts as a deterrent and guarantees some level of security. The stronger the password, of course, the more protection you provide to your backup, so make sure that it’s unique and contains a mixture of uppercase, lowercase characters and numbers.

  1. Restrict Backup Access Rights

The more people that have access to your backups, the more risk there is that they could be compromised or damaged. Therefore, you should only ever assign access rights to the backup software to those members of staff who genuinely need it. Nominating those with access in advance will help to not only protect your backups, but also ensure that restores are completed quickly if the need arises.

  1. Integrate Encryption

There’s every chance that your entire backup could be snatched in the case of a data disaster, so it’s vital that it’s protected. After all, your backup is likely to contain data pertaining to your customers/staff and this could be highly sensitive. However, by encrypting the data contained within your backup, you’re rendering it next to useless in the hands of external parties.  Along with password protection, it’s a simple yet highly effective layer of defense.

  1. Store Physical Backups in a Safe

Although we live in an age where cloud backups are grabbing all the headlines, it’s still important that physical backups are also maintained. These can include: DVDs, optical disks and data tapes. Naturally, due to the data contained on them, these storage methods represent a high security risk and can’t just be stored on a shelf. The best solution is to invest in a safe, but make sure it’s fireproof as high levels of heat can easily distort and damage physical storage devices.

  1. Log all Backups

Most backup software will log details of the backups carried out, but when it comes to working with physical backups it’s a little different. As your physical backups will be stored somewhere, there needs to be a logging process of what is going where. It’s very easy for a single DVD to go missing, but, with a logging system in place, you should discover this sooner rather than later.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

 

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How to Keep Your Business Servers Safe from Hackers

Backup and Recovery, Hacking, Security, Servers, Windows Server, , ,
21
May 2018

The computer servers that support your business are the backbone that keeps your organization productive, but how do you keep your business servers safe?

Every week seems to bring a new security threat and you can rest assured that the number and ferocity of these attacks isn’t going to subside anytime soon. Your business servers, of course, contain untold amounts of sensitive data that could be used to harm not only your business, but also your customers. Therefore, keeping on top of your servers’ security is paramount in protecting your data from the all too real threat of hackers.

To help you stabilize and improve the security of your business servers, we’ve put together a plan of recommendations to help you meet your security objectives.

Run an Antivirus. Regularly.

Viruses can spread from file to file very quickly and, before you know it, your entire server can become compromised. However, a piece of antivirus software can prevent the majority of existing viruses taking hold of your servers. Quarantining infected or suspicious files allows you to analyze anything that is flagged as potentially dangerous, so installing antivirus software really is a prerequisite of good security practices. And, to really maximize its effectiveness, run it regularly as an infection could occur at any point during in the day.

Update Your Server Software

Many pieces of malware work by exploiting security vulnerabilities in software such as Petya and NotPetya, but these vulnerabilities could be easily avoided by patching. Installing patches, though, can feel like a tiresome task, particularly when your organization needs to stay productive. To put things into perspective you need to weigh up the minimal downtime of installing updates against the havoc caused by an infected server. The answer’s pretty obvious, right? Install those patches and install them immediately.

Educate Your Staff on Security Threats

Your staff are the first line of defense against any cyber-attacks on your organization, so it’s crucial that they’re trained in what to look for and what to do in the case of an attack. Naturally, they’re not going to be partitioning infected servers or installing critical updates, but they can do the very basics. And this can be as simple as good password practices or understanding how to identify a phishing email.

Backup Your Data

Ransomware has become a major issue for businesses in the last couple of years and, in many cases, paying the ransom doesn’t even guarantee the release of your files. And this is why it’s vital that your organization embraces backups to help safeguard your data in the event of a ransomware attack. Backups have been a cornerstone of IT security since the dawn of the digital age and their importance should never be underestimated.

Keep Web Browsing Separate

The internet is a portal to untold amounts of information, but it’s also a gateway to untold security threats. And this is the last thing you want your business server exposed to. Providing internet access through a separate server (to your main server), therefore, allows you to minimize the risk to your most important data.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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The Principles of Testing Your Backups

Backup and Recovery, data recovery, Local Backups, testing backup, ,
26
Dec 2017

A backup can be the difference between your business trading and not trading, but it’s crucial that you test your backup to make sure it works.It’s nice to have the safety net of a backup to keep your data close at hand in the case of a data emergency, but this alone can’t be a guarantee that it’s safe and recoverable. And that’s why I would always recommend that you test your backup to help make your restoration as seamless as possible.

Understanding what to test and what to look for is vital when it comes to safeguarding the data in your backup, so I’m going to take you through some of the most basic checks.

Putting Your Backup Under the Microscope

What are the most important factors to take into account when testing your backup? Well, you can’t go wrong with the following:

  • Restore to multiple locations – A common mistake made with restoring backups is to only test them on the intended server or PC that they will be restored to. However, in the case of a data emergency can you honestly know for sure that specific servers or PCs will still be working? It’s possible for hackers to destroy servers, so it’s important that backup solutions are available e.g. laptops and temporary servers. Make sure that backups to these locations are tested as there could be compatibility issues behind them that need eliminating.
  • Scan the restored directories – It’s highly important that you monitor exactly what gets restored during your test backups. Remember, unless you investigate the contents of a folder then you can’t know for sure exactly what is in there. This may sound labor intensive, but once you’ve tested your backup and confirmed that entire directories are being restored, there’s less need to worry.
  • Don’t Just Test Once – Your network’s properties can change on a daily basis, so – although it’s not essential to test on a daily basis – you want to make sure that regular tests are carried out over the course of each month to ensure that factors such as software updates and configuration changes are taken into account. By regularly testing your restore, you’re minimizing the room for errors when your data is restored.
  • Test ALL your applications – Your organization’s IT continuity relies heavily on the ability to have access to all your applications, so it’s essential that you make sure all of these work following a restore. After all, whilst having access to your databases will be highly beneficial, if you’re unable to access your email server then you’re going to face all manner of communication issues.
  • Safeguarding your restore process – Your backup may be capable of fully restoring all your data and ensuring that your organization can continue to operate, but what if your restore software doesn’t work or the procedures aren’t understood? This can present a severe problem, so make sure that you keep install disks of your restore software and, whilst testing, make sure you document the entire process as this knowledge can easily be lost.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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