The important role of back-up in IT security

Rusty King, Thrive’s CTO in the European Division, explains why organisations should include back-up as part of their cyber security strategy.

At the recent Cyber Incursion conference, Rusty King, Thrive’s CTO in the European Division, explained our security proposition and why back-up is a particularly important part of it.

“In the face of a changing security landscape, it’s crucial to have two things: robust protection for your IT assets and rapid, reliable and secure access to your data and applications whenever you need it.” King explained, “without these, you can’t guarantee business continuity and you’re exposing your organisation to unnecessary risk.”

It should go without saying that a comprehensive, integrated IT security strategy is an essential component of modern business. Threats faced come from both inside and outside the organisation, with Gemalto’s 2017 Breach Level Index showing that 72% of all breaches are caused by a malicious outsider, while 27% is a combination of malicious insiders and accidental loss.

One of the most significant challenges businesses face is how to effectively and efficiently address the ever-present threat of social engineering, where users represent the weakest link. Kevin Mitnick, world famous hacker and keynote speaker at the conference, also shared how Security Operations Centre services play a critical role in enabling businesses to monitor, manage and mitigate risk.

The implications of a security breach are wide-ranging, from financial losses to reputational damage, and few will impact business continuity more immediately than loss of data. If key information is inaccessible or lost, the organisation grinds to a halt. This is where a reliable back-up and DR strategy comes into its own.

When implementing a back-up service, King suggests you focus on five key areas:

1. Resilience – your data should always be available as you never know when you may need to access it
2. Flexibility – you should be able to quickly scale your storage space to reflect changes in demand
3. Security – your data should be encrypted end-to-end, stored at a secure location and be fully compliant with data protection laws including GDPR
4. Performance – your service provider should use best-in-class hardware and software to deliver rapid back-up times with industry-leading SLAs
5. Simplicity – choose a solution that’s easy to set up and manage, the last thing you want to do is lose time when trying to restore during an emergency

Lastly, King elaborated on how back-up fits into an organisation’s wider security strategy, explaining that “when combining back-up services with comprehensive threat assessments, alongside a managed security solution that protects all your devices, your organisation can quickly adapt to the changing threat landscape. What’s more you’ll have peace of mind that, should the worst happen, your mission-critical data is at hand whenever you need it”.

You can find out more about our security, Backup and Disaster Recovery services here.