Would your business easily recover from a cyberattack or server crash? How long would it take for you to restore your website, company network, and other digital assets? If you fell victim to a ransomware attack, would you be prepared to ignore the ransom request and simply restore your data from a backup source?
If you aren’t sure you could fully recover after a cyberattack, you need a stronger cybersecurity game plan beginning with an automatic cloud backup system. Simply storing your files in the cloud isn’t enough. You need a cloud file storage platform that initiates automated backups with multiple redundancies.
Automated cloud backups reduce downtime and preserve your files
Having automated cloud backups serves two purposes: preserving your files and restoring your data quickly and seamlessly.
A reliable cloud backup system like Box, for example, runs automatic backups using multiple data centers that use reliable power sources. This type of backup system kicks in automatically and drastically reduces the downtime you might experience during an incident. Automated backup systems often reduce downtime to mere seconds.
How to use a cloud storage system to prepare for potential downtime
Although backup systems are automated, there are several things you can do to make recovery easier after a cyberattack.
- Keep your files organized. Organization is critical for restoring your website. Files stored for the sake of storage will be restored automatically. However, after a cyberattack, you’ll need to reconstruct your website. Make sure you download backups of your databases, images, and other files directly from your server into a special backup folder.
This way, when you need to restore your website, you won’t need to scour all of your design folders and contact other people to get copies of all the files you need.
- Set backups to run as often as possible. How frequently you run automated backups will depend on how frequently you update your files. If your files are updated daily, you need daily backups. If your files are updated multiple times all day long, you need hourly backups.
- Don’t automatically delete too many backups. Most cloud backup services allow you to choose how many backups you want to keep. When a new backup is created, one of your older backups will be deleted.
Since it’s possible that your files might get backed up while they’re in a compromised state, it’s critical to carefully control how older backups are deleted. Your last five backups might happen before you realize there’s a problem, and you’ll need access to backups prior to those five.
- Keep at least one hard drive backup that lives offline. You can support your cloud-based backup system by keeping at least one hard drive backup containing all of your files. Be sure to keep this drive offline unless you’re actively backing up your files to prevent it from becoming compromised. This hard drive will be your backup in case your cloud service fails or all of your backups are compromised.
Servers can crash for a variety of reasons
Your web server and file storage server can crash for a variety of reasons, not just from a cyberattack. Heavy traffic is a common cause for downtime for businesses that offer sales for holidays. In addition to having a backup file storage system, you also need a webhost that will automatically restore a backup of your website to maintain continuity of service.
If you don’t have that kind of agreement with your webhosting provider, consider shopping for a new host. Unexpected downtime can kill your sales and conversions.
Don’t rely on manual backups alone – use automation
Running automated backups ensures you won’t forget to run the backup and keeps your backup schedule consistent. Automating your backups in the cloud requires only enough effort to set up the system. Once you set backups to run automatically, you’re free to focus on growing your business.
Be prepared with cloud-based backup systems
Don’t be one of the 86% of businesses that aren’t prepared to recover from a cyberattack. Small businesses that aren’t prepared tend to go out of business within six months of an attack.
Although you might not be able to escape the fines after a data breach, when your data is properly backed up, it will be easier for you to recover.
