Backup services need to be entirely reliable. Unfortunately, there are services that may not be fully adequate for our requirements:
- Lack of encryption: Security is essential and we should make sure that the service provides full encryption. The security of our data should be considered as paramount. During the transmissions processes, we should make sure that the entire network is completely encrypted. A strong encryption mechanism should make sure that data won’t be intercepted. Data transmission occurs during the back up and restore processes.
- Inadequate data compression: Compression is needed for both saving storage space and making data transmission faster. It’s a handy feature during the backup and restore process. However, some online backup services neglect the importance of proper compression. It means that we would need to pay more for extra storage and data bandwidth. A good compression method shrinks our data into a smaller package. Compressed data can also be encrypted, improving the whole security of the backup service. It means that even if bad people are able to obtain our compressed file, they would be hard-pressed to crack open the encryption mechanism.
- Open access by staff: Although many online backup services promise fully encrypted storage and other data security measures, it doesn’t mean that the data is completely safe. We should make sure that the encryption key is strong enough and not known by the staff themselves. A strong encryption would be useless if more than a few people know about the key. So, we should make sure that we choose an online backup solution carefully.
- Improper data center locations: It is important to know where the data center is located. We should know that different regions and countries may have different laws related to data protection. It means that if our data is stored in a different country, it won’t be under the protection of our country’s legal system. If the data is breached, the case will fall under the local regulatory and legal jurisdiction. It is acceptable to outsource our data storage, but we may not be able to afford outsourcing liabilities and responsibilities related to the data.
- No ISO 27001 certification: A good data centers should be certified based on internationally-recognized standards, including ISO 27001 that covers Information Security Management.
We may take enough precautions regarding data security, but online backup services may not do the same. If we only want to recover a single file, there’s no guarantee that our whole data collection would be available for usages. If we back up our data, we should make sure that it can be protected as well. Just because our data has been stored in the cloud, it doesn’t mean that it would be perfectly secured. This concern generally applies in any data center. We should do everything we can to maximize the whole performance of our data security system. It should be ensured that data can be easily accessed when we need it most. After all, many things could go really wrong and there could be multiple points of failures in our system.