What Happens if Your Cloud Data is Lost or Hacked?
It used to be that the only option for data storage was on a hard drive of some sort. But today, and for several years, the cloud has been a convenient and viable option for data storage. In fact, even if you don’t think that your organization is utilizing the cloud, that’s exactly what you’re doing every time you use some sort of third-party application (think Slack, Asana, Facebook, Skype).
The cloud has some tremendous benefits but there are risks involved. Even the most reliable sources can be problematic at some point. Below are some of the risks that can be associated with cloud storage and what you can do to prevent it.
“What happens if your cloud data is lost or hacked?” is a viable question, and one that businesses that use the cloud should know the answer.
The Cloud Is Susceptible to the Same Risks as the Internet
Cyber Attacks – Your data is still at risk of a breach any time you store it in the cloud. In fact, the cloud may be more appealing to hackers simply for the vast amounts of data that are stored there.
Password Hacks – The right password hack on the cloud can give a hacker access to personal or business computers and put all your data in jeopardy. Important documents can all be put at risk.
Server Crashes – Even the bigger, fancier servers that cloud providers use can go down. When they do, it be catastrophic for the customers impacted.
What Can You Do to Prevent Cloud Data Loss?
There are some basic principles of computer safety that can help prevent cloud data loss. Below are a few measures that are easy to apply.
Use Unique Passwords – If you are using the same password for different services, hackers can gain access to more than one account. A password manager will let you create unique, strong passwords for each account with the ability to quickly and safely gain access when you need it. LastPass and RoboForm are examples of programs that can help.
Two-Factor Authentication – Two-factor authentication can help you to protect your cloud data. Many internet applications and services now require this step. Obscure security questions can also help to protect your data.
Encrypted Services – Data encryption provides another layer of security for information stored in the cloud. This is especially important for highly sensitive information. It reduces the possibility of the service providers even being able to see your sensitive information.
Creating Other Backups – If the cloud is your main method of data storage, creating a local backup can improve the chances of full data recovery in the event of cloud data loss. There are applications that can make this process move smoother for you.
Protecting Your Cloud Data is Critical
Data stored in the cloud is widely regarded as safe, but the above cybersecurity safety measures can improve the chances that you recover your data in the event of a cloud data loss. This is important to understand after asking the question “What happens if your cloud data is lost or hacked?” Should you suffer a loss or a breach, a data recovery company such as We Recover Data can help if you need to recover a local copy of your data.
What is Cloud Backup and Recovery?
When a business loses critical data and information, the most ideal situation is to have a backup ready to go so that the business can quickly restore data. Businesses often ask “What is cloud backup and recovery?” The answer is that it is a backup storage capability that allows businesses the ability to quickly access data in the event of a system failure, outage, or natural disaster.
Cloud backup works by allowing businesses to back up their information to a remote server that’s in a different physical location.
Why Do Businesses Use the Cloud for Backup?
- It Protects Your Online Assets – When critical data and applications are stored off site on the cloud, they are protected from the risk of weather or outages.
- Faster Recovery Times – Data stored in the cloud can be quickly recovered. This allows companies to regain access to data with very little downtime.
- Convenient Storage – The cloud doesn’t depend on hardware backups on a hard drive or tapes.
How Cloud Backups Work
If your organization had a physical data center, the backup would simply go to a different media or storage system for easy access if a recovery was needed. While this is still a viable and dependable option used by many businesses, the cloud offers an option that doesn’t rely on the need for more hardware in your physical location.
One way to operate in the cloud would be to use a service such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. If you go this route, then the cloud provider would use its own backup software to create a duplicate.
Organizations can also provide their data to back up to companies that specialize in providing that service. There are companies that specialize in backing up data that already lives in the cloud, as well. There are also hardware devices that specialize in backing up data to the cloud.
Cloud Backup Vs. Cloud Disaster Recovery
Cloud backup services can be used in the event of a disaster, but they may not provide all the same features that you would get from a disaster recovery plan. Users would need to mirror their entire servers within the cloud backup system to get that.
A cloud backup provider may also provide disaster recovery services, but this would entail more resources to accomplish.
Do You Need Cloud Backup Services?
Cloud backup is easy to use and affordable. It is also a reliable way to maintain access to your data in the event that it is lost. The loss of data can lead to downtime for your business and become significantly costly. By using the cloud, you are investing in a solution that can protect your business for the long term.
The backups are automatic and seamless and don’t require effort on your part to use. It’s also a secure backup that can be safer than most other options.
Disaster Recovery and Cloud Computing
When it comes to disaster recovery and cloud computing, it may look a little different than it does when the data is physically stored in the same location. While the cloud can feel challenging to define at times, it’s essentially a global network of servers, each with unique functions. These servers are linked together operating as a single entity.
This can give businesses a tremendous computing advantage versus storing their information on private servers or at a data center. At the same time, it changes the way that disaster recovery takes place.
What is Cloud Disaster Recovery?
Cloud disaster recovery simplifies the data recovery process and allows companies an additional layer to safeguard critical data. It’s a method for backing up data, applications, or resources to the public cloud, or dedicated service providers. Then, if a disaster occurred, that data could more easily be recovered so that you can resume normal operations faster.
Cloud disaster recovery is still very much about protecting critical data and creating means to keep your business up and running in the event of a disaster. Planning for disaster recovery is always part of a sound business strategy. But as the cloud advances, it simplifies the amount of hardware and planning necessary for individual businesses to safeguard their data.
Cloud Disaster Recovery Vs. Traditional Disaster Recovery
With cloud disaster recovery, you’re essentially storing and recovering system data on a remote-based cloud platform. The core idea in traditional data recovery is to store redundant copies of data in a secondary location. In some cases, this might mean:
- Requiring sufficient server capacity for storing redundant copies of critical data
- Enough internet bandwidth for remote access to secondary data
- Network infrastructure to make the secondary data source reliable when needed
All this planning and infrastructure can keep businesses operating in the event of a disaster. But if critical data is lost anywhere in the process, it is important that they hire an experienced and reliable data recovery company.
Cloud disaster recovery has several benefits as well. Here are just a few:
- There’s no need for a secondary site or additional hardware. Storage is remote, in the cloud.
- It’s easy to scale up or down on services, depending on your needs.
- Cloud disaster recovery can often be performed in minutes, with a device that is connected to the internet.
- Backups are stored across multiple servers in multiple geographic areas.
Disaster Recovery and Cloud Computing: When to Go With the Cloud
Disaster recovery and cloud computing may look a little different, but building a recovery plan follows similar principles. The only difference is the nature of the technology that you will rely on to build your data infrastructure. There are some significant benefits to going with the cloud. It’s important to remember, however, that if you lose data, it’s important to go with an experienced data recovery company that you can trust.
We Recover Data can help you keep your business running smoothly in the event of a disaster. If you are looking for data recovery solutions, contact us today!
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to post a comment.