The need for Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365

Many small businesses do not understand the need for backup and recovery services for their Microsoft 365 deployments.  They beleive Microsoft is backing up their systems but this is not accurate.  Microsoft does not provide the tools needed  to fully protect your Microsoft 365 environment from malicious, accidental or intentional data loss.  This lack of understanding comes from two issues:

  • Customers are not familiar with the distinction between email archiving and data protection
  • Customers believe that Microsoft’s highly resilient software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering protects all data and applications

Email archiving

Email archiving provides e-discovery, regulatory compliance, and legal protection of your email data.  Put simply, it captures every email that has been sent and received by your organization and ensures that these messages can be found and retrieved.  A good archiving solution also has the following qualities:

  • The archived emails and attachments cannot be changed or manipulated.
  • Items can be retrieved by using clever searches grouped together or complex searches called tags.
  • Search results can be placed into legal hold so that they are not purged and can be easily retrieved as needed. This feature is most often used for compliance audits, litigation, or related reasons.
  • End users are able to search an retrieve their own messages as needed, according to the policies configured by the system administrator.

We recommend that  businesses have a good email archiving solution in place to protect the company from potential compliance and legal incidents.  The risk of not having an archiving solution in place leaves a company wide open and exposed to any legal ramification that relies on email evidence.

Email archiving is not a backup

Even if you have email archiving services in place, you should still maintain a backup and recovery solution for Microsoft 365. Archiving can hold and retrieve specific messages, but it cannot restore a complete mailbox and all of its contents to a single point in time.  Imagine the following scenarios:

  • Somebody hacks your Microsoft 365 account, deletes everything in your mailbox, and empties the recycle bin. This type of deletion is common during account takeover attacks, so that there is less evidence of the attack left behind.
  • You accidentally delete a sub folder containing important work email and various documents (attachments). You may not notice this straight away as often you have lots of sub folders in your mailbox, and this type of thing is easy to do by mistake on your phone.
  • A former employee’s account was deleted, and you realize you need to restore the mailbox. Using an email archiver for this task would be tedious and require multiple steps outside of the archiver.
  • A cyberattack, a human error, or a catastrophic event has caused data loss in OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, or Microsoft Entra ID. Email archiving does not store this content.

With an archiving solution, you could search and retrieve specific email items from the archive, but even if you knew what to retrieve from the archiver, do you have the time to reconstruct your inbox structure and contents?

Can you remember what your mailbox looked like last night or last week? How long would this take if you have lost your calendar items, contacts, tasks, journal items, etc.? And as noted above, email archiving doesn’t protect everything in Microsoft 365.

Disaster recovery — who does what?

Microsoft has a highly resilient infrastructure that rarely suffers an outage, which is good, because Microsoft is responsible for making sure your Microsoft 365 environment is always available. This makes it easy to assume that you should not have to provide a third-party disaster recovery service for Microsoft 365.  Disaster recovery appears to be Microsoft’s responsibility.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Microsoft is only responsible for the Microsoft 365 infrastructure that supports your data.  It is not responsible for the data in your Microsoft 365 environment. Microsoft calls this out in their Managed Services Agreement — Section 6B — “We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps.”

Recycle bin is not a backup

Microsoft provides a recycle bin for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and One Drive for Business — so even without an archiver there is some native protection for these items.  However, the recycle bin is not a backup.  Similar to a PC recycle bin or a Mac trash can, the Microsoft 365 recycle bin is just a folder that contains items that you have deleted. You cannot do a point-in-time recovery from your deleted items folder because this folder only holds items that were deleted and would not contain the good emails or files that you need to restore. Additionally, the maximum extended retention of the Recycle Bin is 93 days, and your items may be purged and unrecoverable after that time.

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup

That’s where our cloud-to-cloud backup solution comes in.  It can restore your whole mailbox or individual emails, contacts, and other items back to any daily revision (recovery point) very easily. We work with several vendors to ensure your data is backed up fast, reliably and without your intervention. It’s a complete backup solution for Microsoft 365 that operates entirely in the cloud.

Hurricane Season is Here Again

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Florida is often hit with hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, flooding and more. Take time now to prepare your family and your business in advance of possible disasters.

Here are a few things you should know before a storm hits:

  1. The elevation level of your property—It’s a good idea to know your home’s elevation and prepare accordingly. FloodTools.com has some great tips for planning for a flood. And although you might not be able to prevent flood damage, you could take measures to avoid losing truly irreplaceable things.
  2. Where to find shelter—When a storm hits, the last place you want to be is outside. Even a car is not a reliable place to take refuge. It’s best to think through where to go beforehand—to have a plan. Basements, the bottom floor of a building, or a community shelter are good places to wait out a storm.
  3. Evacuation routes—When appropriate, local officials will provide information about evacuation routes through the media. But these routes are typically available at any time online. It’s a good idea to be familiar with these routes before a storm hits so you know where to go.
  4. A safe place for your car—Ideally, your car would be with you as you evacuate. However, if you can’t take it with you, park it indoors or on high ground away from potential sources of damage (falling debris, projectiles, etc.). Be sure to have a tarp and waterproof tape handy to seal your windows and doors, as well.
  5. How to know a storm is coming—You can spot a tornado brewing by the dark, often greenish, sky; big hailstones; and large, low-lying clouds. You’ll also hear a roar, similar to a freight train. In the case of a hurricane, look for increasing ocean swells, frequency of waves, and driving rain 36 to 72 hours before it hits.
Things to do now before the storm
  1. Keep your car fueled up—Don’t wait until it’s time to evacuate to realize you don’t have enough gas. Gas stations will often be closed during emergencies, and the pumps don’t always work if there’s a power outage and no generator. Be sure to have at least a half tank of gas at all times.
  2. Keep the landscaping in check—Well-trimmed trees and shrubbery are more wind resistant. And that means they’re less likely to become flying battering rams in a storm.
  3. Have materials ready to board up your windows—Storm shutters offer the best protection, but if you don’t have them, 5/8 inch marine plywood is a good alternative. Cut the boards in advance, and keep them at the ready so you can use them when it’s time. 
  4. Make an emergency kit—In the event of a severe storm or hurricane, you might have to wait for days before help arrives. Have enough food, medication, water, and basic supplies to last at least 72 hours.
Visit the NOAA Website for updated storm information

BACKUP IS CRUCIAL FOR YOUR BUSINESS ESPECIALLY AHEAD OF THE STORM

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Cloud-to-Cloud Backup For Microsoft 365

Did you know?

Microsoft recommends that you use third-party backup for your Microsoft 365 data. Our Cloud-to-Cloud Backup options offer fast backups, highly granular restore capabilities, and unmatched ease of use.

Microsoft 365 protection

Back up your Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive data, and find and recover the exact data you want quickly and easily with advanced search.

Ransomware Protection

Your final defense against ransomware and other cyber-threats is your backup, so you need a secure backup that offers role-based access control, encryption, and multiple copies of the data

Cloud native

Your Microsoft 365 data is already in the cloud — saving secure, encrypted backups in the same network means better performance and instant scalability.

Fully managed Microsoft 365 backup and protection

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup gives you the flexibility to restore Microsoft 365 Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and OneNote data with highly granular detail.

Full SharePoint support means you can backup and restore everything in SharePoint including different site templates, custom lists, permissions, and metadata — eliminating much of the labor and expense associated with restoring files only.  You can restore SharePoint libraries, lists, and documents to any SharePoint sites you choose. Backing up and restoring has never been easier.

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup offers complete, granular protection of your data with point-in-time retrieval, and both scheduled and on-demand backup. In addition, your data is deduplicated and compressed to maximize storage efficiency and minimize the backup window.

Effective ransomware protection

Your backup is your best chance to recover after a ransomware attack, so it’s crucial to have a good backup of all your important data – including SaaS data in Microsoft 365. Microsoft offers features, including the recycle bin, but it is not meant to be used as a backup and recovery solution. That’s why Microsoft recommends using a third-party backup for Microsoft 365.  We partner with premier Cloud-to-Cloud Backup providers to secure your data.

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup not only makes it easy to find and restore the data you want; it also offers important features, including immutable storage, to protect the data against modification or removal, except through the secure Cloud-to-Cloud Backup interface. Your data is further protected by security features, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), 5 levels of role-based access control that determine who can do what, and end-to-end encryption.

If you ever need help to restore a file, our fully managed technical support is just a phone call away.

Cloud Native

Cloud-to-Cloud (C2C) Backup lives entirely in the cloud, so there’s no software or hardware for you to manage or update on your computers. Because your Microsoft 365 data is already in the cloud, retaining your encrypted backup files in the network means better performance and instant scalability — it just makes sense. Multiple external copies of your backup files ensure redundancy and security. Sign up with us and we can start running your first backup the same day.

Frequently Asked Questions

What data does Cloud-to-Cloud Backup protect?

Use it to protect your Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business data. 

How is Cloud-to-Cloud Backup licensed?

It is licensed on a per licensed user basis.  We don’t bill you for shared mailboxes or unlicensed users.

How much storage does Cloud-to-Cloud Backup provide?

You can back up and protect an unlimited amount of data with our 365 plans.

How long can I retain my backup data?

You set the retention policies for your backed-up data based on your particular needs. Unlimited retention means you get complete flexibility.

How do I access my Office 365 backups?

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). We can completely manage the data for you and/or provide you access via a cloud-based service that makes it easy to monitor and recover files.

Will restores overwrite my production data?

All restore operations in Cloud-to-Cloud Backup are nondestructive, and will not overwrite existing data. This applies to Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

What happens when an Office 365 user leaves the organization?

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup will retain the user’s previously backed up data according to the retention policy you define.

How can I retrieve backed-up data from users who left the organization?

You can restore a former user’s backed-up data to a different account, or to a new account. Even after the account is purged from Office 365, you retain access to important data.

BACKUP IS CRUCIAL FOR YOUR BUSINESS

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Microsoft Windows 7 And 8 OneDrive Support Is Ending

Are you a OneDrive user running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1? If so be aware that on January 1st, 2022 your OneDrive desktop application will reach end of support.

The company offered the following by way of explanation:

“In order to focus resources on new technologies and operating systems and to provide users with the most up-to-date and secure experience beginning January 1, 2022, updates will no longer be provided for the OneDrive desktop application on your personal Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 devices.

Personal OneDrive desktop applications running on these operating systems will stop syncing to the cloud on March 1, 2022. After March 1st, 2022 your personal files will no longer sync and should be uploaded/accessed directly on OneDrive for web.”

The good news is that your OneDrive files aren’t going anywhere. So you don’t have to worry about finding a new cloud-based file storage system. This is definitely more than a minor inconvenience and yet another reason to strongly consider upgrading your PC and your OS to something more modern.

As things stand the clock is ticking for extended support for the OSes mentioned above. It won’t be long before you lose the protection offered by periodic security updates. Before that happens you need to be thinking in terms of steps to protect yourself and all your data regardless of where it lives.

Although it is highly inconvenient for people running those older Operating Systems it’s completely understandable that Microsoft is taking this stance. Though the company has deep pockets it also has a sprawling catalog of products to maintain. At a certain point they simply have to say goodbye to older applications. Upgrade before the clock runs out.

Used with permission from Article Aggregator

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Don’t Let Your Employees Become Your Biggest Vulnerability

Computer Repair and Managed IT Services in Delray Beach

A couple years ago, TechRepublic ran a story with the following headline: “Employees Are Almost As Dangerous To Business As Hackers And Cybercriminals.” From the perspective of the business, you might think that’s simply inaccurate. Your company strives to hire the best people it can find – people who are good at their jobs and would never dream of putting their own employer at risk.

And yet, many employees do, and it’s almost always unintentional. Your employees aren’t thinking of ways to compromise your network or trying to put malware or ransomware on company computers, but it happens. One Kaspersky study found that 52% of businesses recognize that their employees are “their biggest weakness in IT security.” 

Where does this weakness come from? It stems from several different things and varies from business to business, but a big chunk of it comes down to employee behavior.

Human Error 

We all make mistakes. Unfortunately, some mistakes can have serious consequences. Here’s an example: an employee receives an e-mail from their boss. The boss wants the employee to buy several gift cards and then send the gift card codes to them as soon as possible. The message may say, “I trust you with this,” and work to build urgency within the employee.

The problem is that it’s fake. A scammer is using an e-mail address similar to what the manager, supervisor or other company leader might use. It’s a phishing scam, and it works. While it doesn’t necessarily compromise your IT security internally, it showcases gaps in employee knowledge. 

Another common example, also through e-mail, is for cybercriminals to send files or links that install malware on company computers. The criminals once again disguise the e-mail as a legitimate message from someone within the company, a vendor, a bank or another company the employee may be familiar with. 

It’s that familiarity that can trip up employees. All criminals have to do is add a sense of urgency, and the employee may click the link without giving more thought.

Carelessness

This happens when an employee clicks a link without thinking. It could be because the employee doesn’t have training to identify fraudulent e-mails (See How to Spot a Phishy Email) or the company might not have a comprehensive IT security policy in place. 

Another form of carelessness is unsafe browsing habits. When employees browse the web, whether it’s for research or anything related to their job or for personal use, they should always do so in the safest way possible. Tell employees to avoid navigating to “bad” websites and to not click any link they can’t verify (such as ads). 

Bad websites are fairly subjective, but one thing any web user should look for is “https” at the beginning of any web address. The “s” tells you the site is secure. If that “s” is not there, the website lacks proper security. If you input sensitive data into that website, such as your name, e-mail address, contact information or financial information, you cannot verify the security of that information and it may end up in the hands of cybercriminals. 

Another example of carelessness is poor password management. It’s common for people to use simple passwords and to use the same passwords across multiple websites. If your employees are doing this, it can put your business at a huge risk. If hackers get ahold of any of those passwords, who knows what they might be able to access. A strict password policy is a must for every business and MFA or 2-Factor should be used whenever possible.

Turn Weakness Into Strength 

The best way to overcome the human weakness in your IT security is education. An IT security policy is a good start, but it must be enforced and understood. Employees need to know what behaviors are unacceptable, but they also need to be aware of the threats that exist. They need resources they can count on as threats arise so they may be dealt with properly. Working with an MSP or IT services firm may be the answer – they can help you lay the foundation to turn this weakness into a strength.

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