By Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Veeam Software and Anthony Spiteri, Regional CTO APJ, Veeam Software

As we are nearing the World Backup Day which falls on March 31st, it's a resounding reminder for organizations to improve their data protection endeavors with better recovery and ransomware defenses.

As per the Veeam’s latest Data Protection Trends report (DPR) 2024, cyberattacks remain the predominant reason for most impactful and devasting business outages for the fourth time in a row. Ransomware continues to be more of an inevitability than not (Eight in ten 10 APJ organisations suffered at least one ransomware attack last year) and the consequences continue to reverberate around business continuity which ultimately leads to the loss of brand reputation and revenue. In fact, Veeam’s DPR report found that cyber threats are one of the biggest inhibitors to achieving DX initiatives in APJ, as resources are diverted away.

This illustrates a need for resilient backup strategies, in addition to protective measures.

 This year, Veeam outlines five best practices for secure backup that will help increase their cyber-resilience:

Keep attackers out – work towards Zero Trust:

Cyber resilience is about adapting and evolving to stay ahead of threats. Zero trust is a journey where new security practices are implemented and refined over time, to protect against threats that may exist both inside and outside the network. Zero trust ensures security practices are maintained in a constantly evolving landscape and all endpoints are secured by default.

Data immutability:

With the rise of ransomware, having an immutable backup has become critical to keep businesses running. This is because threat actors now routinely attack backups. Immutable means that something is unable to be changed or deleted so if backups are targeted, attackers still can’t alter the data, ensuring recoverability.

Use encryption:

This is where the partnership between the security and backup teams is more and more crucial. Together, they must develop and implement robust strategies to safeguard data throughout its lifecycle, from creation to backup storage. By ensuring a cohesive approach, these teams can enhance data protection measures, effectively mitigating the risk of unauthorised data access and ensuring comprehensive security in the backup process using best of breed technologies.

Plan (and test!) for the Worst:

Build a proven, documented plan by keeping your documentation up to date, testing your backup plan regularly and proving your RPO/RTO.

Don’t Reintroduce the Threat:

Restore with confidence by having a plan for infections, and avoiding reinfections from backup data that may have undetected latent malware that has not yet been activated