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Don’t Backup To The Same Environment

Don’t Backup To The Same Environment

27th September 2023

Storing backups within the same environment or system they originate from can expose organizations to a number of risks. Using Microsoft Office 365 as an example, here’s an explanation of why backing up your data back to the same Microsoft environment is not the best idea:

  1. Single Point of Failure: Storing backups in the same location as the original data means that both primary and backup data can be compromised simultaneously. If there’s a catastrophic event, such as a natural disaster that affects Microsoft’s infrastructure or a significant system failure, both your primary data and backups might become inaccessible.

  2. Security Risks: While Microsoft Office 365 has robust security measures, no system is entirely immune from security breaches. If a hacker gains access to your Office 365 account, they might also access backups stored in the same environment. Keeping backups offsite or in a separate environment can ensure that even if your primary data is compromised, you still have access to a secure copy of your information.

  3. Ransomware Concerns: Ransomware attacks, wherein cybercriminals encrypt data and demand a ransom for its release, have become increasingly common. If your backups are stored in the same environment, they can also be encrypted by the ransomware, rendering them useless when you most need them.

  4. Data Sovereignty and Compliance: Some regulations and industry standards require that backups be stored in specific ways or in specific locations. Backing up within the same environment might not meet these requirements, potentially causing compliance issues for businesses.

  5. Limited Access and Restore Capabilities: Storing backups in the same environment can mean that restoring data, especially granular data, may be more cumbersome. A specialized backup solution may offer quicker, more flexible restore options, allowing businesses to minimize downtime after a data loss event.

  6. Versioning and Retention: Specialized backup solutions often offer advanced versioning and retention policies, ensuring that you can access previous versions of files and data from specific points in time. Relying on in-environment backups might not offer the same breadth of historical data.

  7. Over-reliance on a Single Vendor: Relying on Microsoft for both primary data storage and backup can create a scenario of over-dependency. Diversifying backup storage can protect businesses from potential future changes in pricing, policies, or service levels from a single vendor.

To mitigate these risks, many organizations opt to use third-party backup solutions to store backups in separate environments and locations such as Loop Backup for Microsoft Office 365. This ensures that, in the face of data loss or compromise, they have secure, uncompromised copies of their critical business data to restore from.

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Safeguarding Your Office 365 Data: The Importance of Geographic Diversity in Backup Solutions

Safeguarding Your Office 365 Data: The Importance of Geographic Diversity in Backup Solutions

11th August 2023

Climate change has brought about a new era of unpredictable weather patterns, causing more frequent and severe natural disasters like flooding and wildfires. While these tragedies often bring thoughts of immediate physical loss, there’s another critical aspect to consider: data loss. Here’s why having a cloud backup of your Office 365 data in a different country or building is vital to safeguarding your valuable information.

1. Climate Change Impacts

Climate change is no longer a distant concern. With rising global temperatures, we are witnessing more volatile weather patterns, including increased flooding and wildfires. Storing data in a single location can leave you vulnerable to these catastrophes.

2. Diversified Geographic Backup

Having a cloud backup of your Office 365 data in another country or building creates a robust safety net. By diversifying the geographical locations of your data storage, you reduce the risk of losing all your information to a single disastrous event. If a flood or fire affects one site, your data remains secure and accessible at another.

3. Legal Compliance

Many countries are implementing regulations requiring organizations to have a disaster recovery plan. Complying with these laws may involve having a cloud backup in a different location. This compliance not only keeps you within legal bounds but also reinforces your commitment to data security.

4. Quick Recovery

In a world driven by information, downtime can have significant financial and operational impacts. Geographic diversity in your backup strategy ensures that you can quickly recover your data, even if one location becomes inaccessible due to flooding or fire. This availability minimizes downtime and helps your organization continue to function effectively.

5. Long-Term Strategy

Considering the long-term effects of climate change and its unpredictability, having a comprehensive and geographically diversified backup plan is not only wise but necessary. It offers a proactive approach to potential threats, keeping your Office 365 data secure for years to come.

Conclusion

Climate change, flooding, and wildfires are not concerns of the distant future. They are real and present challenges that require immediate attention, particularly in terms of data protection. By implementing a geographically diversified cloud backup strategy for your Office 365 data, you are building a resilient safeguard against these threats, ensuring continuity, compliance, and peace of mind. Remember, in today’s unpredictable world, it’s not just about backing up your data; it’s about where you back it up.

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Have you ever thought you would never need a backup?

Have you ever thought you would
never need a backup?

20th April 2023

Have you ever thought you would never need a backup? We show you why you were wrong.


Prevent definitive data loss

We take care of our beloved ones, our belongings, our health, and so on. We should take care of our data too. We have to face it we could accidentally delete an important file, or our hard drive could crash unexpectedly. But having a regular cloud-based backup would keep data loss to a minimum. This backup solution would allow us to retrieve the deleted or crashed files very easily. Also in the unfortunate event of having a computer/laptop stolen, we can get all the files of that device back by having a cloud-based backup.


We really need a plan B

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” – says Murphy’s law. We are sure many of us had at least one situation in our lives, which made us say that it happened because of the good, old Murphy. For example, think about it when all of our original back-ups end up with data damage. It can be very annoying, can’t it?
How could we avoid a situation like this? Have a plan B, have a cloud backup storage! This additional backup solution can make our life easy because if anything could happen to our original back-ups, we still have a place where all of our data are safe.


Avoid the pain caused by overwriting

“There is already a file with the same name in the destination folder. Would you like to replace the existing file??” No man on Earth who would not have met this sentence whilst using a computer/laptop. Also, we can imagine a situation when somebody accidentally deletes something or everything from a document and then saves it. After overwriting a file, without a backup, it’s almost impossible to get back the missing one. With an automatic, cloud-based backup, we can restore that file easily.


Live with a peace of mind

Being hit with a ransomware attack will cause all our files to be encrypted, and we had to pay the hacker to decrypt all of the files. It does not sound like a peaceful moment. Sitting in our office doing nothing because the company’s server shut down and we can not access our files sounds like a waste of time. But it’s easy to spare ourselves from these inconveniences. If we have a cloud-based backup, all we have to do after a ransomware or virus attack is fully wipe our machine and restore our files. Also, in case of a server shutdown, we don’t have to wait for the restart because we can access all of our backed up files.


Buy a new device without a doubt

Buying a new computer or laptop always makes us excited. We choose the most suitable one, go home, switch on the device and… This is where the complicated part could start. We have our new toy, but we have all of our files stored on our old computer/laptop. Let’s travel back in time and start a cloud backup. Now travel back to the future and start to download all of our pictures, videos, music, documents and settings.

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The Perimeter Is Now Everywhere, So How Do We Secure It All?

The Perimeter Is Now Everywhere,
So How Do We Secure It All?

20th April 2023

In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, organisations have been forced to grapple with a new reality: the perimeter is now everywhere. The days of simply relying on firewalls and other traditional security measures are long gone. Instead, organisations must now consider how they can protect their data, networks, and applications from the threats posed by our increasingly complex environment. In this blog post, we will explore the challenges associated with securing a multi-hybrid environment, and provide tips on how organisations can protect their data in today’s world.

 

In a multi-hybrid environment, where the perimeter is now everywhere, security should be able to protect it all.

 

In the modern age, the perimeter of a network is no longer confined to the traditional four walls of a single physical building. As businesses continue to expand and leverage digital solutions, the concept of the perimeter has moved from a single, fixed location to encompass many virtual boundaries across multiple locations and cloud-based systems.

 

This new multi-hybrid environment brings with it a plethora of security challenges. While traditional security solutions can help protect the perimeter of a single physical location, they are not equipped to handle the scale and complexity of this new landscape. To protect against threats in this new environment, businesses need a comprehensive security solution that covers multiple networks and devices.

 

Email and web browsing are two of the most common ways that cyber criminals gain access to corporate networks, so it’s essential that businesses have the right security measures in place to protect against these threats. An effective email security solution should include antivirus protection, encryption, content filtering and threat intelligence. Similarly, web browsing security should include malware protection and URL filtering.

Servers and storage are critical components of any IT infrastructure, and they must be properly secured to ensure that sensitive data is not accessed by unauthorised individuals. The best way to protect server and storage systems is by implementing a strict set of policies and procedures that limit access to certain individuals and monitor activity. Additionally, businesses should deploy solutions such as encryption and multi-factor authentication to ensure that data is safe and secure.

In addition to the core security solutions mentioned above, businesses should consider deploying additional solutions such as cloud access security brokers (CASB), intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and advanced threat protection (ATP). These solutions provide an extra layer of protection and can help detect malicious activity before it has the chance to cause damage.

Securing a multi-hybrid environment is no easy task. However, with the right solutions in place, businesses can ensure that their data is secure and protected from cyber threats. By investing in comprehensive security solutions and following best practices, businesses can ensure that their networks are safe and secure in today’s ever-changing environment.

 

Email, web browsing, servers and storage are merely the basics,

In today’s multi-hybrid world, the perimeter of an organisation’s security is no longer confined to a physical location. With the increasing prevalence of cloud computing and remote working, the traditional perimeter has extended beyond the boundaries of the office, leaving us with the question: How do we protect all of this?

Fortunately, there are solutions that can help us protect our ever-growing perimeter. Email, web browsing, servers, and storage are just the basics, so let’s look at how we can secure these components.

Email: Email has long been a go-to form of communication in the business world, but it is also one of the most vulnerable elements when it comes to security threats. To mitigate these risks, organisations should consider investing in email protection and monitoring software, which will help detect malicious attachments and other suspicious activity.

Web Browsing: Web browsing also presents a variety of security risks, so it is important to have measures in place to ensure your organisation is not exposed to these threats. Investing in a web application firewall or content filtering solution is a great way to make sure your organisation’s data is safe while browsing the internet.

Servers: Servers are another essential element in any organisation’s security system. It is important to have the right tools in place to protect your server from potential attacks. Solutions such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, endpoint security, and malware protection can help ensure that your server is kept secure.

Storage: Finally, storage solutions should also be secured with appropriate security measures. Cloud storage solutions provide organisations with a secure and cost-effective way to store their data. Encryption tools are also available to help protect sensitive data from unauthorised access.

By putting in place the right measures and technologies, organisations can ensure that their multi-hybrid environment remains secure and safe. So whether you’re dealing with email, web browsing, servers, or storage, make sure you have a comprehensive plan in place to protect it all.

The need for a new approach to security is becoming more urgent every day

As businesses and organisations move to a multi-hybrid environment, the perimeter is now everywhere. This means that the traditional methods of security may no longer be enough to protect our data and systems from malicious actors. It’s becoming increasingly important for businesses and organisations to consider adopting a new approach to security that can adequately protect their data and systems in this new environment.

The first step towards this new approach should be understanding the types of threats that can affect a multi-hybrid environment. The primary threats to consider include data loss, system outages, malicious software, and distributed denial of service attacks. Once these threats are understood, organisations must then look at the type of security measures they should use to protect themselves against them.

These measures can include implementing cloud-based security solutions such as firewalls and antivirus software, using identity and access management (IAM) tools, strengthening authentication processes, and regularly monitoring logs. Additionally, organisations should take steps to educate their employees about cybersecurity best practices and make sure all devices used within the network are properly secured.

By taking these measures, organisations will be well on their way to creating a secure multi-hybrid environment that is able to protect its data and systems from malicious actors. As security threats become increasingly sophisticated, it’s essential for organisations to stay ahead of the game by taking proactive steps to ensure their data and systems are protected.

 

A multi-hybrid approach to security is the best way to protect your business

As businesses move to a multi-hybrid environment, it is essential to secure the entire perimeter. With threats coming from every direction, security must be able to protect web browsing, email, servers and storage in order to keep sensitive data safe.

A multi-hybrid approach to security is the best way to protect businesses in this new landscape. This requires a combination of technologies, including endpoint protection, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. Each technology should be used to complement the other and provide complete coverage against any potential threat.

Endpoint protection is designed to protect devices from malicious software, preventing them from being taken over or breached by external attackers. Firewalls provide a barrier between trusted and untrusted networks, blocking malicious traffic and preventing unauthorised access. Intrusion detection systems use machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect suspicious activity and respond accordingly. 

By utilising a multi-hybrid approach to security, businesses can ensure they are protected against the ever-evolving threats in the digital world. Additionally, a comprehensive security plan should include security training for employees to help ensure that their actions do not inadvertently cause problems. By taking a proactive approach to security, businesses can ensure their data remains safe and secure.

 

Implementing a multi-hybrid security approach is not as difficult as you might think

When it comes to securing a multi-hybrid environment, many organisations feel overwhelmed. After all, the perimeter is everywhere now, from email and web browsing to servers and storage. It can seem daunting to protect all of these different points of entry.

Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to help secure your environment. By implementing a multi-hybrid security approach, you can reduce your risk and give yourself peace of mind. Here’s what you need to know about this type of security solution.

  1. Establish a Security Architecture: A multi-hybrid security approach needs to have a clearly defined security architecture in place. This should include an assessment of existing IT infrastructure, existing security policies and procedures, and current compliance requirements. This will help you identify the areas that need to be secured and ensure that they are properly addressed.

  2. Utilise Endpoint Security: Endpoint security solutions can provide an added layer of protection for your organisation. These solutions can be used to protect devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones from malicious attacks, as well as detect suspicious activities on the network.

  3. Use Firewall Solutions: Firewalls are essential for keeping attackers out of your system and allowing authorised users to access the network. When selecting a firewall solution, look for one that offers robust security features such as intrusion prevention systems, malware protection, and user authentication.

  4. Implement Network Security Solutions: Network security solutions can help protect your organisation from data loss, malware attacks, and other threats. They can also help ensure that your sensitive data is kept secure. When selecting a network security solution, make sure it provides comprehensive protection and supports all the latest technologies.

By taking the time to implement a multi-hybrid security approach, you can rest assured that your organisation’s data and assets are safe. With the right solutions in place, you can keep the perimeter safe and secure no matter where it exists in your environment.

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Introducing Passkeys: The Password Replacement

Introducing Passkeys:
The Password Replacement

20th April 2023

Are you tired of entering long, complicated passwords every time you log in to your account? Do you want a more secure and convenient way to authenticate your identity? Then look no further than Passkeys – the revolutionary password replacement that is quickly becoming the new standard for online security. With Passkeys, you don’t need to type anything at all; instead, you can authenticate yourself biometrically, giving you an extra layer of protection and peace of mind. In this blog post, we will discuss the advantages of Passkeys, and why they are the best choice for online security. Read on to learn more!

 

What is a passkey?

A passkey is a type of authentication that can replace passwords. Instead of typing in a password every time you want to access an account or service, a passkey allows you to authenticate yourself biometrically. This could be through your fingerprint, face recognition, voice recognition, or other biometric measures. 

Passkeys provide a more secure and convenient way to access accounts and services, as they require no memorization or manual entry. They also offer greater protection against brute force attacks, which are common methods used by hackers to guess passwords. 

There are various types of passkeys available on the market. Some are physical tokens that you can carry around, while others are software-based solutions. There are even passkey systems that are built into certain smartphones and tablets. No matter the type, passkeys offer an easier, faster, and more secure way to log in to accounts. 

To set up a passkey system for your accounts, you’ll need to find a provider who specialises in this technology. Once you have a provider in place, you’ll need to set up the system and choose the type of biometric authentication you want to use. From there, you’ll be able to enjoy the convenience and security of a passkey.

 

How do passkeys work?

Passkeys are a modern, secure, and convenient way to log in to your accounts without having to remember and type in passwords. Instead of typing in a long string of characters, you use your biometrics – like your fingerprint, face, or iris scan – to authenticate yourself.

Passkeys work by taking a unique and encrypted code that is generated from your biometric information, and this is what is used to grant you access to your account. This code is unique to you, so it can’t be guessed, stolen, or hacked, meaning that it provides much higher security than traditional passwords.

In addition to being more secure, passkeys are also much more convenient than passwords. Since you don’t have to type anything in, you don’t have to worry about forgetting or mistyping your password. You can also access your accounts faster than ever before as there’s no need for extra steps like setting up a two-factor authentication process.

Overall, passkeys are a great way to improve the security and convenience of logging into your accounts. With the added layer of protection from biometric authentication, you can be sure that your data is safe from unauthorised access. Plus, the ease of use makes it easy for everyone – no matter their technical knowledge – to quickly and securely sign in.

 

Why are passkeys more secure than passwords?

Passkeys are a new form of authentication that make signing into your account easier, faster, and more secure. Instead of entering a password, you can use biometric data, like your fingerprint or voice, to prove your identity. This type of authentication is much safer than passwords because it’s not vulnerable to brute force attacks or social engineering.

Biometric data is unique to each individual, so it’s almost impossible for someone else to gain access to your account if they don’t have the right authentication credentials. On top of that, you don’t have to remember a password or worry about it being stolen. 

Using passkeys also means that you don’t have to waste time typing in a long and complex password every time you need to sign in. Your device will recognize your biometric information quickly and easily, so you can sign in with just one touch or voice command. 

Overall, passkeys are an incredibly secure and convenient way to protect your online accounts. They provide an extra layer of security and make signing in faster and easier than ever before.

 

How can I get started using passkeys?

Are you looking for a more secure and convenient way to access your accounts? Introducing Passkeys, the password replacement that takes the hassle out of signing in. With Passkeys, you no longer need to type a password to access your account; instead, you can authenticate yourself biometrically.

So how can you get started using Passkeys? Here’s a step-by-step guide:

  1. Sign up for an account with a Passkeys compatible provider. These providers include select banks, mobile apps, and other services that support this type of authentication. 
  2. Install the Passkeys app on your smartphone or tablet. This app stores your biometric data and verifies your identity when logging in.
  3. Create an account with the Passkeys provider and follow the instructions to register your device. You will need to scan a QR code or provide some basic information.
  4. Once registered, you can use Passkeys to log into your account quickly and securely. Simply launch the app and scan your fingerprint or face to authenticate yourself.

With Passkeys, you don’t have to worry about remembering a password or typing it in every time you log in. Instead, all you need is your finger or face, and you’re good to go! So what are you waiting for? Get started with Passkeys today!

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