Intelligent CISO Issue 18 | Page 29

? KATE MOLLETT, REGIONAL MANAGER FOR AFRICA AT VEEAM W ith the average number of breached data records topping 25,000 per country, it is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ a business will get compromised. Stealing sensitive data has become big business and this is where the importance of an effective data management strategy is critical. From backing up to the availability of data following a crisis, decision- makers need to continually evaluate their strategies to ensure they mitigate any potential risks when it comes to data breaches. Considering that the average cost in time to resolve a malicious insider attack is 51 days, can a business really afford not to take protecting its data seriously? On the positive side, the introduction of legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 18 Europe and the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in South Africa, has meant local organisations are more aware of the implications and taking data breaches more seriously. This is not only in terms of the business impact but also the reputational damage and loss of consumer confidence as a result. Depending on the nature of the breach, fines associated with compliance and regulatory standards can be significant. Companies are very focused on securing their business, becoming more open with how they approach technology solutions and partnering with other organisations. But as they expand their digital horizons, so too does the potential threat landscape. If ransomware is introduced, the only choices are conscious loss of data or restoring from a backup. An offsite copy of customer data at a local cloud provider, using different user credentials adds another layer to the Backup-as-a- Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery- as-a-Service (DRaaS) solution. This also complements the offsite copy strategy, delivering many benefits. Some cloud providers have enabled Veeam’s Insider editor’s question Protection Recycle Bin which assists with internal and external threats. We introduced the concept of a recycle bin for customers sending offsite cloud backups to cloud providers using Veeam Cloud Connect. This deleted backup protection or insider protection allows the cloud provider to enable the deleted backups protection option for specific tenants and looks to add another level of data security for cloud-based backups in the case of a malicious user gaining access to the backup and replication console or in the case of accidental deletion by an administrator. Organisations must be more involved in the solutions that bring cloud data management into the business and further ensure that ransomware strategies include an educational aspect. One key piece of advice that we have been sharing with the industry for years is the Veeam 3–2–1 rule. It states that you need to have three copies of your data, stored on two different media types, with one being offsite. This can address multiple failure scenarios and does not require any specific technology. 29