CyberSecurity Risks are Very Real

In January 2015, data hackers got into Anthem Blue Cross’ health insurance records and stole sensitive information including patient names, Social Security numbers and other information for up to 80 million people. The massive cybersecurity breach cost the healthcare giant upwards of $115 million to resolve.

Cybersecurity scares and data hacking scandals at industry leading organizations are evidence that offsite data tape backup is one of the most effective and secure ways of storing information. As businesses gradually become more dependent on cloud storage and other storage solutions, data hackers are developing new skills directed at leading cloud providers.

Perils of Cloud Backup

Basic Security

Countless businesses continue to have false hopes when it comes to the information security they can expect when using cloud back up. Cloud providers usually offer their clients security that is the same across the board. Therefore, the information security exposures of each client are generally disregarded. In order to take advantage of heightened data security, organizations need to pursue an information security system that can be customized to their needs. A personalized data security plan will ensure the successful protection of the information most vital to your business.

More often than not, organizations tend to allow their cloud providers to make all the decisions when it comes to the security of their sensitive data. This results in businesses occasionally being uninformed when new security threats arise and are not able to take action to avoid and prevent these risks.

Data Hoarding Makes the Perfect Target

The invitation for a hack to target a leading cloud provider is becoming greater, as multiple organizations are electing to all store their data in one place with leading cloud providers like Google and Amazon. Obviously, large establishments such as these leading providers have the resources to stop cyber-attacks, but the number of threats they receive is far higher than what an individual business would receive.

Intentional Attacks

Investment in data security must be of utmost importan ce in order for cloud providers’ services to be trusted by their users. If and when a cloud hosting provider is distressed by a data security threat it can have a highly damaging impact on its’ reputation. For example, in October 2015, Linode, a cloud hosting company with data center around the world, was targeted by a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack. The cyber-attack on the cloud provider lasted for seven days. The result was customers experiencing connectivity delays and several virtual cloud services coming offline.

An information attack of this magnitude most likely will cause substantial interruptions to customers data, giving them a reason to look somewhere else for their data storage and information management needs.

Data Tape Backup Reliability

Magnetic data tapes are an offline format of backing up information, which means several of the cybersecurity threats linked to cloud storage are alleviated. Data tapes tend to be stored at secured offsite facilities, eliminating any means of cyber penetration by hackers.

There is no denying that the time it takes to retrieve data from magnetic tape back up is greater than that of cloud retrieval. However, longer retrieval time could be evidence of data tape’s renowned reliability. Data that can be physically removed and intact from its on-site data center, is more likely to survive security threats and intentional destruction.

Hybrid Solutions

It is common for organizations to use data tape as a backup solution in combination with other online backup solutions. More often than not, data tapes are the final point of call in the event of an information management disaster.

In the event that an organization is the target of an online data attack, it can be confident that it’s business sensitive data is safe and always ready for use as backup recovery. The hybrid system back up can provide the security and effectiveness that organizations yearn for from a data recovery program.