By Govind Rammurthy, CEO and Managing Director, eScan
In today’s technologically advanced world, organisations increasingly rely on digital formats to store critical information. As a company grows, so does its database. Regularly backing up this data is crucial, as unforeseen events like ransomware attacks or natural disasters can threaten the very survival of a business.
Cybercriminals are the primary cause behind most data loss cases reported worldwide. As of mid-2024, alarming statistics reveal the global prevalence of cyber-attacks. By May 24, over 9,000 corporate data breaches had been recorded, resulting in significant data losses. The tactics employed by these criminals have evolved, and their impact continues to instill fear across various industries. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2023, 83% of breaches are orchestrated by criminal organisations.
“In today’s landscape of escalating cyber threats, effective cyber risk management is imperative. eBackup plays a pivotal role in this defense, safeguarding businesses from modern digital risks through secure backup of vital information. By implementing robust security features like this tailored for business and corporate networks, enterprises can protect their critical data and maintain uninterrupted operational continuity.” says Govind Rammurthy, CEO and Managing Director, eScan.
What is eBackup?
eBackup (electronic backup) is a functionality from eScan that enables businesses to back up their key information over local devices, external hard drives, network drives, or cloud-based storage like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. It creates and stores copies of organisations’ digital data for safety and recovery purposes.
Backing up the organisation’s critical files stored on networked endpoints is essential as files can be lost or damaged due to malware outbreaks, ransomware, or unauthorised alterations by another user.
Need for eBackup
eScan’s eBackup complies with several essential corporate requirements, offering a complete solution for data protection and business continuity. Below are major corporate needs that eBackup fulfills:
Data Protection
eBackup can act as an insurance policy in case of natural disasters, malware attacks, and critical system failures. After such unforeseen events, it ensures quick data restoration. Additionally, it provides utmost data protection as the files are stored in an encrypted format.
Enhancing system abilities
Different businesses require different storage capacities, and their requirements may change as they grow. eScan eBackup ensures scalability based on actual business needs without investing in physical storage setups. Along with scalability, it also delivers flexibility as employees can access the backed-up files from anywhere around the world, facilitating remote work.
Cost and time efficiency
Due to the high cost of on-premises storage setup and its maintenance, organisations need reasonable and reliable data backup solutions. eBackup from eScan offers this as its cloud backup option doesn’t require any physical hardware system to store data.
As automation becomes prevalent in almost every aspect of technology, eBackup allows automatic processes in the form of scheduling backups on a regular basis, achieving time efficiency and eliminating the need for regular task setups.
Business continuity
Organisations can easily recover backed-up data without worry and continue their operations seamlessly after data loss incidents. As far as redundancy is concerned, organisations can take multiple copies of the data stored in different locations, enhancing sufficient data availability.
The ‘Panera Bread’ data breach incident
In April 2024, an American chain store of Bakery-cafe called ‘Panera Bread’ fell victim to an unknown ransomware attack which caused an IT outage that lasted for a week. The attackers reportedly encrypted the company’s VMs (Virtual Machines) and blocked access to the data, causing a failure in the chain’s ordering system, mobile applications, websites, and loyalty programs.
The name of the ransomware group is still unclear as the victim company refused to make comments on the matter. After a couple of weeks, their systems, websites, and customer services were back on track as the firm managed to recover the data they had backed up.
How it could have been prevented
The Panera Bread ransomware incident could have been smartly restricted if the company had prioritised cybersecurity. To avoid such digital threats, an effective anti-virus and internet security solution is required in every organisation. The company can restrict such attacks in the future by proactively following the steps below:
Implementing cyber-security solutions
Robust corporate-grade anti-virus solutions need to be employed in the company’s network system. This security solution will protect the connected endpoints from a range of online threats like viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, ransomware, adware, keyloggers, and more.
eBackup
The organisation must be strict in regularly backing up important data, preferably on cloud storage, with other options being local devices, external hard drives, or network drives. This significantly helps avoid huge data loss that can cause major interruptions in a business due to natural disasters or drastic malware attacks.
Appropriate employee training
Implementing annual employee training sessions is crucial to educate all staff members about cybersecurity measures and tactics. This training aims to equip employees with knowledge on how to protect themselves and the organisation from scams such as social engineering, vishing, spoofing, and other cyber threats.
To eliminate the possibility of data loss, organisations need a solid eBackup solution that can cut off manual intervention in almost the entire data backup process. eScan eBackup is one such trusted solution that can fulfill data backup requirements.
One-Stop solution for secure data backup
eScan’s eBackup feature enables company administrators to securely align backup tasks where admins can choose certain folders or file types to be backed up and save the backup files on cloud storage, local devices, external hard drives, or network drives. These backup files are compressed, encrypted, and safeguarded in real-time by eScan. On the drive, the backup files are placed where the most free space is available, but admins always have the option to save them elsewhere, like cloud storage and external drives.
Certain data recovery and decryption programs claim they can recover or decrypt any type of file. However, often they fail to recover the data in its original form. This will not be the case with eScan’s eBackup feature, as one can rest assured that the backup document will be decrypted securely without losing any data. If intruders somehow manage to obtain the company’s backup file, they will find it inaccessible, as the lossless file recovery and complete restoration can only be achieved through eScan.
Key Features of eScan’s eBackup:
-User-defined tasks: Manage and customise backup tasks according to your needs.
-Flexibility in storage location: Take a backup of particular folders or file types on your local device, external drives, network drives, or cloud storage options.
-Storage efficiency: Selectively exclude folders or file types from being backed up.
-Selective backup: Include certain file types in the regular backup schedule as needed.
With eScan’s eBackup, organisations can ensure their data is securely backed up and easily recoverable, maintaining data integrity and security at all times.
