Many people assume that data they store in the cloud is safe. As everyone stores more in the cloud, it’s the logical place criminals attack. A recent study from Google and CrowdStrike says that over 40% of data breaches now involve cloud storage.
This means it’s more important than ever to ensure your cloud data is protected by an immutable backup protocol like Pegasus Advanced Cloud Backup. Immutable backups are unalterable copies of data that cannot be modified, re-encrypted, or deleted for a preset retention period. Stored in a different cloud than the source data in a strict read-only state, immutable backups serve as a critical defense against ransomware attacks, internal threats, and accidental deletions by ensuring data remains pristine for recovery.
When cloud providers say backup is included, they are typically referring to backup in scenarios where they experience catastrophic hardware failure. Free cloud backups are typically not designed to protect against cybercriminal activity directed at one client or a subset of their data.
Free cloud backups are typically stored for 30 days or less, so if an attacker stays hidden for more than a month, it may be impossible to restore your data to a known-good state without immutable backup.
Free cloud backups tend to be a little clunky to restore, often requiring a delay as a batch of data is recovered. People then need to sift through the restored data to find and merge what they need. Immutable backups can typically be restored with granular precision, enabling ultra-fast restores of the precise data you need where you need it. Most restores are needed for simple mistakes, not massive security breaches, so immutable backups add value even when you’re not suffering a doomsday scenario.
Have data in the cloud you need to protect? If you don’t want to use a service like Pegasus Advanced Cloud Backup, we suggest you set a calendar reminder to download your cloud data monthly to an external hard drive that you keep disconnected from your computer except when you’re running the backup job. Before unplugging the hard drive, make sure you can successfully open a few files from it to ensure the backup worked. Get a second hard drive, and use it to download a fresh copy of your cloud data in two weeks using the same protocol. Set a monthly reminder for it, too. This drive rotation will help ensure you have a good backup that’s never more than two weeks old and is resistant to hardware failure.
Have a question about this, or a tech tip you’d like us to cover? Contact Pegasus and let us know.
