Why Immutable Backups are a No-Brainer

By Philippe Cazaubon, Director, Barracuda Southeast Asia & Korea

With World Backup Day just in our rearview mirror, we are reminded of the importance of having an up-to-date, readily accessible copy of all vital business data. These days resilient backups have become a ‘must-have’, helping businesses to recover faster from data disruption, damage, and loss. And with experts calling the Asia-Pacific region the new ‘ground zero’ for cybercrime, it’s not hard to see why.

But more than this, did you know that immutable data backups can also protect you from more threats, like data tampering by malicious insiders? An often underrated threat, data tampering has been called “the next level of cyberattacks.” To understand more, let’s start at the beginning.

What is a data integrity breach?

A data integrity breach refers to an unauthorised alteration or manipulation of data, which compromises its accuracy, reliability, or trustworthiness. Unlike data breaches that involve unauthorised access to data, data integrity breaches involve malicious or unintentional changes to the data itself, including alterations, deletions, or insertions, leading to falsehoods and inaccuracies, which could land you in hot water if not addressed.

So, what’s the answer? It’s all about deploying a double layer of defense.

The good news is – not all is lost. By deploying a double layer of defence, it’s possible to stay protected. This means deploying a comprehensive security solution featuring robust access controls, data encryption, secure communication protocols, and AI-driven anomaly detection to prevent external threats from compromising network integrity.

Why immutable backups are a ‘must-have’?

The second, equally important layer of defence is immutable data backups. Immutable data is data that cannot be changed or deleted, which means that if someone does tamper with your data – your backup files remain unaffected and can be used to restore your data and prove beyond doubt where content has been falsified. More than this, immutable backups can also help by:

1. Protecting your network from internal threats by preventing authorised users from altering or erasing data.

2. Mitigating the impact of ransomware by ensuring a clean, unaltered copy of the data is available for restoration, therefore reducing the impact and potential need to pay the ransom.

3. Protecting against accidental data corruption. Think hardware meltdowns, software hiccups or an employee accidentally hitting ‘delete’ instead of ‘save’.

4. Ensuring compliance with regulatory mandates in certain industries and frameworks, facilitating adherence to data retention and compliance requirements while preserving data integrity and authenticity.

To conclude – by uniting fortified security measures with immutable backups, organisations can construct an unyielding fortress against both prevalent cyber threats such as ransomware and other parties (either internal or external) who might otherwise succeed in manipulating crucial business data.