Disaster Recovery - Discussion Reply

Discussion 1

A strong backup database is important. With increasing number of data servers, this becomes an issue. Data backup systems are required to protect the content of data backup databases. On the other hand, data backup systems can cause storage errors and make data corruption. To resolve these data corruption issues, the database must be protected with a strong password. Data backup systems also play a major role in disaster recovery. This is because the information can become part of disaster recovery plan. For many databases, the data backup system is also part of the disaster recovery strategy. We believe that it is important that businesses assess and understand the potential risks to their data before placing a trust with cloud providers, and they should make such investment decisions as soon as possible when possible. A second concern is that businesses using cloud providers require the security of their data to ensure that it is safe to be transmitted over to another cloud provider. The trust is supposed to be a 'safe harbour' whereby other cloud providers would not be able to track, monitor or copy the data. Because of the extreme physical condition, it is not economical to store the data for many hours. (Biczók, 2015).

Instead, backup facilities should be used to store the data for longer periods of time. This is due to greater use of backup systems and to the increased amount of system capacity required to handle the extra data that needs to be stored for backup. Beside on-site backups, the primary reason for providing off-site backup services is to ensure data integrity. As the server storage for backup is located on-site, the backups are stored within the company's infrastructure. On-site service for backups is necessary if the server storage has no off-site backup server. This ensures that it maintains data integrity at the point of loss if damage happens off-site. Off-site backup is preferable if there is no backup server in case damage does occur on-site. (Thanaya, 2016).

References

Toka, L., & Biczók, G. (2015, April). On pricing online data backup. In 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS) (pp. 564-569). IEEE.

Sharma, N., & Thanaya, I. (2016). Multilayered Home security system with backup capability. Advances in Computer Science and Information Technology, 3(5), 413-416.

Discussion 2

With the advancing technology and increased dependency on the computer resources, there is increase in chances of computers getting affected by malware threats such as ransomware. Ransomware is one of many threats which is growing at a higher speed and accounts for most of the extortion-based cybercrimes which not only makes organizations to lose their prestigious reputation among their customers and clients but also can raise questions on the privacy and security of their data storage. Once the systems are affected by such malware and the data storage is encrypted, it leaves the victims with no other choice but to pay the ransom in return of their confidential data. in such cases having a data backup is safest option as it can help the organization restore its data just before the incident. An information risk assessment is a process of examining the organization’s security controls in order to protect its data and infrastructure from such threats. (Thomas, J., & Galligher, G. (2018))

As per Stewart,James M. (n.d.)., backup media requires a specialized and very focused security control. It contains a 100 GB of sensitive and personalized information which can easily be stored in a small case. It’s very easy to steal a backup media rather a affecting the whole organization’s network. Backup media should be clearly labelled with the level of classification of the data rather than the content of the backup. The organization should monitor all the media movements, storage locations and media possession.

Offsite data backups can easily be accessed over FTP or network. It may limit the access to some users, but it solely depends on the individual’s preferences. The backup data can be easily shared among different remote locations. Accessing the data can be little bit tricky when using an offsite backup.

References:

Thomas, J., & Galligher, G. (2018). Improving backup system evaluations in information security risk assessments to combat ransomware. Computer and Information Science, 11(1).

Stewart,James M. (n.d.). Securing backup media. Retrieved from https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/Securing-backup-media