Author: Aegis

As more businesses adopt hybrid working environments and migrate their data to the cloud, one important factor they should focus on is the security in endpoints.

Most employees prefer the flexibility that comes from working in a hybrid workplace. However, it presents IT security teams and administrators with new security challenges they may have never encountered before.

This is because when employees work from various locations and on so many different devices, it becomes difficult for IT teams to verify the security in their endpoint devices.

Moreover, if employees access the company’s network without firewall protection, it will open them to cyberattacks.

Data is an integral part of businesses today, which is why IT teams must find and implement effective endpoint management solutions to protect the business’s data.

In this article, we’ve compiled several reasons why IT teams may find it challenging to enforce endpoint security measures for their company.

But First, What is Endpoint Security

Endpoints serve as access points to a business’s network and create entryways that cybercriminals can exploit.

Security in endpoints refers to the process of securing any devices (e.g., Laptop, desktop and mobile devices) an employee uses to access a business’s internal network.

It examines a business’s files and systems to detect malware and suspicious activities. When companies implement endpoint security practices, they have greater control over the access points to their network.

Read More: What’s Your Contingency Plan when Endpoint Devices are lost?

Security in Endpoints for Hybrid Workplaces

Here are three reasons why implementing security in endpoints can be difficult:

1. Security in Endpoints is Not A Priority

Generally, cybercriminals target endpoints to:

• Access a company’s network and the information stored on endpoints
• Launch DDoS attacks that overload the servers, causing a business’s operations to come to a halt

Unfortunately, many organisations think security in endpoints is unimportant, leaving them vulnerable and unprotected. And cybercriminals know this.

However, endpoint security is crucial in securing a business’s data. Organisations should employ tools that will allow them to monitor, oversee and secure all endpoints connected to their networks.

2. Zero Trust Implementation

Zero Trust is a security framework where all users must be authenticated, authorised, and validated before accessing a network’s applications and data.

It addresses challenges most businesses face, such as securing remote workers, hybrid cloud environments, and ransomware threats.

However, implementing a zero trust model for security in endpoints is not easy, especially if the company has legacy systems that do not transition well to this new model.

Moreover, a zero trust model requires various IT functions and tools to work seamlessly across an organisation’s data, devices, network, applications, and users.

And since it is a fairly new concept, IT teams may take a while to implement a zero trust model into endpoints, leaving security holes in the business’s network system.

3. Increasingly Complex Cyberattacks

Cybercriminals are well aware of the IT issues COVID-19 has brought to businesses. With endpoint devices behind on security updates, they are attacking computer networks, exploiting their vulnerabilities to access and steal sensitive data.

This is especially dangerous for remote workers, as they may not know how to properly install standard antivirus software or detect cyberattacks, such as phishing.

Read More: Key Aegis Features You’ll Need to Beat Ransomware

Security in Endpoints: Keeping Your Network Safe

As remote and hybrid workplaces become the norm, organisations must take measures to enhance the security of their endpoint devices.

By enforcing security measures for their endpoints, they can protect their confidential data from cyberattacks, human errors and more.

Aegis Cloud Endpoint Backup is a simplified and scalable endpoint backup solution. It utilises robust, configurable backup technology to protect a business’s data across all endpoints.

Businesses can also benefit from:

• Unlimited backup storage
• Centralised backup policy
• Global device location tracking
• Simplified IT administration

With cybercrimes rapidly growing both in complexity and frequency, enhancing your business’s cyber resilience strategy should be your top priority.

Businesses must have a robust cyber resilience strategy in place that will protect them from cybercrimes, mitigate risks and severity of attacks, and enable business continuity.

In this article, we explain what cyber resilience is and what you can do to improve your business’s cyber resilience.

What is Cyber Resilience?

Cyber resilience refers to an organisation’s ability to continue its operations despite a cyberattack or data loss incident. Similarly, human error can also affect a business’s operations and render it incapable of serving its customers.

The main goal of cyber resilience is to help an organisation effectively mitigate and quickly recover from challenging cyber events, such as ransomware, natural disasters or economic slumps.

Why Is Cyber Resilience Important?

Cyber resilience is essential because traditional security measures are no longer enough to protect a company’s data and network security.

It provides businesses with various benefits, such as increasing their security posture and reducing the risk of exposure to their infrastructure.

Moreover, if an organisation receives cyber resilience certification, it inspires trust in its clients and customers.

Read More: A Checklist for Selecting the Right Backup Software and Backup Service Provider

How to Improve A Business’s Cyber Resilience

Here are five ways you can reinforce your organisation’s cyber resilience:

1. Conduct Cybersecurity Audits

As the threat landscape evolves and new technologies emerge, it is increasingly important for organisations to conduct comprehensive cyber security audits regularly.

They help organisations take the necessary steps to reduce their risk of falling victim to cyberattacks by identifying weaknesses and areas that require improvement.

Furthermore, cybersecurity audits can help to build confidence among an organisation’s stakeholders that the cyber security measures in place are adequate.

2. Enforce Stringent Security Protocols

An organisation must enforce rigorous security measures, including multi-factor authentication and encrypt valuable digital assets to minimise the risks of data theft and unauthorised access

3. Employee Training

One of the biggest challenges with data security is the human aspect. Companies that collect confidential data about their employees and customers must ensure that their information is kept secure.

This includes providing employee training and implementing data loss prevention tactics. Business owners should regularly conduct security awareness and training programmes to stay updated with the latest cybersecurity trends.

Training can also be included in a business’s onboarding process. This is because new hires will be unfamiliar with your security policies and may lack knowledge about security awareness.

Moreover, business owners should take measures to encourage their employees to adhere to their organisation’s security policies and procedures.

They could also educate employees on why software updates and security patches are important and how to conduct basic security checks.

4. Backup Your Data

When disaster strikes, you must restore your data as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the cost of revenue loss, productivity loss, and customer frustration can negatively affect the business.

Moreover, a data loss or breach can have far-reaching regulatory and reputational consequences affecting the business years after the event.

That is why a reliable backup and recovery strategy is vital for a business to be cyber resilient. Having a copy of your data ensures business continuity and protects your company against data loss or corruption.

5. Incident Response Planning

Incident response planning is an essential part of any organisation’s security posture. A well-developed incident response plan allows an organisation to minimise the damage caused by an incident and resume operations as quickly as possible.

There are four key steps in developing an effective incident response plan:

• Identify potential incidents
• Develop response procedures
• Create a communications plan
• Test the incident response plan

Read More: Understanding RPO and RTO to Better Strategise Disaster Recovery

Achieving Cyber Resilience with Aegis

As businesses grow more accustomed to storing and sharing their information online, it is important they have an effective cyber resilience strategy to protect their data from cyberattacks.

Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR) helps improve your organisation’s cyber resilience by providing comprehensive business cloud data protection that manages and protects your confidential data.

With Aegis CDR’s popular 4-3-2 backup rule, it ensures four copies of your data is available at all times at three different backup storages and two off-site locations to secure your data.

Aegis CDR also provides maximum value by combining comprehensive endpoint protection solutions, Microsoft 365 data backup, and complete managed services.  

There is much debate between cloud storage vs cloud backup, especially in recent years. However, many business owners often confuse the terms with each other.

This is because while both terms may sometimes be used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings.

Each of them serves a purpose, and you might need both, depending on your business’s backup strategy.

For many business owners, not knowing how these two terms differ or why they’re necessary could cost them when they need them the most.

Continue reading to understand the differences between these two cloud terms, cloud storage and cloud backup.

Cloud Backup

Cloud backup (or online backup) is designed to automatically back up your files, applications, or servers. It then stores them safely for disaster recovery purposes.

Cloud backup services are usually subscription-based and require a monthly or annual fee, although some providers offer lifetime accounts with a one-time payment. 

It is recommended for businesses with large amounts of data as well as organisations that need to consistently have automatic and frequent backups of their information.

However, while it is ideal for day-to-day storing and file sharing, cloud backups are still vulnerable to file loss or corruption, for example:

• Someone might accidentally delete a shared file without knowing
• Malware may corrupt your devices and files, which will also impact your data stored in the cloud 
• You might not store all of your files in the cloud storage (to stay under your size limit), which means that your data will be at risk should something happen to your endpoint devices

Read More: What can Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR) Do for You?

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage, on the other hand, makes files accessible from any device or location. Your uploaded documents are hosted online, making it easy to collaborate with others in real-time.

Popular cloud storage options include Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

However, there is no guarantee that your files will be safe. If a cloud storage provider’s server goes down, you may never have access to your files again.

This is because most cloud storage providers do not offer an automated process for uploading or syncing files between your computer and their service.

You would have to manually upload your files to the cloud or place them in a shared folder to be synced. 

Therefore, while cloud storage is an effective way to share your documents, it isn’t the best solution to back up your business-critical applications and documents.

Choosing Your Ideal Cloud Storage Solution

If you are unsure if a cloud storage or a cloud backup solution is best for your business’s needs and requirements, here are several questions you can ask yourself:

• Are my team members increasingly mobile and working from multiple environments? 
• How easily can they collaborate on and share documents? 
• Do we have large stores of accumulating transactional data and growing archives with creeping operational costs?
• What happens when a workstation, laptop, or server fails?
• How long should we retain database backups?

Once you decide between cloud backup vs cloud storage, or both, compare how well they fit with your business and data requirements, such as:

Compliance

If you work in an industry with rigorous regulatory and compliance rules, such as healthcare, you may think that storing data in a cloud service is a troublesome process.

However, most cloud storage and backup services have accommodated such requirements.

For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires cloud providers to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and adhere to data and physical data centre security and location requirements. 

Support

Support can vary significantly between services. What may seem like the right cloud service for your organisation in terms of features may be lacking in the support you need.

Determine what support levels are available for the service and the costs involved should a problem arise.

Accessibility

Evaluate how your users will access the cloud service and whether it provides them with the appropriate devices and operating systems.

Read More: Reality Check: Time to ask these hard questions to your current Backup / DR provider

Keep Your Data Safe with Aegis

While there are some similarities between cloud backup and cloud storage, they are designed for very different purposes.

Cloud backup backs up all your data and stores it safely, ensuring easy restoration and business continuity.

However, cloud storage focuses on usability and accessibility. This helps you easily store your files and share them with other devices.

With two completely different purposes, you will likely need to seek both solutions. This includes making full use of the benefits in cloud backup vs cloud storage solutions when running your business. 

Aegis Disaster Recovery-As-A-Service (DRaaS) is a simplified but effective managed cloud disaster recovery service. DRaaS utilises cloud resources to help businesses avoid downtime during a disaster.

It includes:

• Free unlimited cloud DR resources
• Complimentary DR seats
• A dedicated Aegis DR drill team

With the advent of technology, one of the most enterprise-friendly innovations developed is SaaS data backup apps like Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365. These apps have fundamentally changed how many businesses operate, enabling companies to adopt flexible work practices and reduce IT costs.

While storing data in cloud applications is far safer than storing data on most on-premise storage systems, it’s not enough.

Unfortunately, many SaaS providers offer businesses a false sense of security that their data is properly backed up and can be retrieved in an emergency.

However, in reality, SaaS application providers offer very limited data protection in terms of cloud backup and restoration capabilities, often failing to meet the needs and desires of businesses.

In this article, we’ll look into SaaS data backup and outline the three common ways businesses lose their cloud data.

But first, what is SaaS Data Backup?

Software as a Service (SaaS) data backup is a technology that creates copies of a SaaS product’s data and stores it in the cloud. 

Many SaaS data backup solutions have features relevant to the software they are backing up. For example, SaaS backup software that integrates with email systems will include data archiving and secure storage features. 

Here are several features common in most backup software: 

• Data restoration
• SaaS product integration
• Malware protection
• Data encryption
• Insider threat protection

Read More: Scammer Check: An Expert Guide to Avoiding Online Security Threats

How SaaS Apps Implement Data Protection

Here’s a quick look at how your data protection is supported in Google Apps and Office 365, two of the most popular SaaS apps available.

Google Apps

Google offers high availability (HA) infrastructure with erasure code and multiple replicas in multiple locations, so your data will still be accessible in hardware failure incidents.

However, it does not offer native backup capabilities for Google Groups or Sites data.

Microsoft Office 365

The infrastructure of Office 365 is not unified, which means the backup capabilities for the components differ depending on the application.

Its backup measures include local flash copies, data encryption, offline remote backup, and near real-time replication to a data centre.

Using SaaS relieves business owners of the worries and costs associated with maintaining in-house infrastructure.

However, it also means that they are responsible for backing up their own data.

In an era when data is vital to a business’s success, business owners can’t afford to get this wrong.

Finding a trustworthy partner to provide SaaS data protection must be at the top of every organisation’s list.

3 Common Ways Businesses Lose Their Cloud Data

1. Human Error

The single leading cause of data loss in the cloud is user error. Employees may accidentally delete contacts, data, emails and more that are essential to the business.

However, data loss caused by human error is not always caused by a business’s employees.

Some of the most catastrophic errors can be made by the business’s IT management, such as:

• Weak data handling procedures
• Unclear data security policies
• Poor staff training on cybersecurity
• Poorly configured network systems

2. Hackers

As more organisations move to the cloud, cybercriminals are adopting new tactics, methods and procedures to steal their data. 

Though the cloud is physically more secure, its ease of use has led to an increase in new applications and databases with complex configurations that are difficult to manage and monitor.

As a result, cybercriminals can easily slip into a business’s networks, resulting in compromised data and compliance failures. Moreover, failing to protect valuable data could cost companies their bottom line and reputation.

3. Malicious Insider Activity

Despite companies implementing data backup security measures, malicious insider activities (both on-premises and on cloud IT infrastructures) are challenging to prevent. 

Malicious insiders are employees who maliciously and intentionally abuse their access to a business’s networks. They generally steal information for financial or personal gain. 

Examples include former employees who hold a grudge against their previous employer or an opportunistic employee who sells the business’s private data to a competitor.

Read More: Understanding RPO and RTO to Better Strategise Disaster Recovery

Invest in the Right Backup Solution Today

Losing confidential data is a nightmare for businesses, especially when their data is fuelling their operations. Although cloud applications are more resistant to data loss than conventional, on-premise solutions, they are far from immune to irreparable loss of data. 

Adopting a SaaS data protection strategy to keep data safe in the cloud is a great place to start. Still, the best solution is to turn to a third-party backup and recovery provider who can ensure your cloud data is safe and secure, like Aegis.

Aegis Cloud Universal Backup (CUB) is a cloud backup service that integrates with existing backup software to provide off-site data backup with unlimited disaster recovery resources.

From high-bandwidth file synchronisation to detailed database failover options, we ensure you can easily recover your data in the event of an emergency.

Data backup vs data archiving; two terms that are often used interchangeably but have very different purposes.

Data is a business’s most valuable asset. Hence, it’s vital that data protection practices are in place to protect it.

However, many IT professionals wrongly assume that data backup and data archiving are the same since they both make and store a copy of production data.

But that is the only thing they have in common.

In this article, we highlight the differences between data backup and data archiving to understand their distinct functions better.

Data Backup vs Data Archiving: 5 Key Differences

1. Data Backup vs Data Archiving Definitions

A data backup is when a business copies its data from a primary location (for example, the office) to a secondary, remote location. This protects the data in case of an unforeseeable disaster, accident or malicious action.

On the other hand, businesses use data archiving to store data that is not changed frequently or required regularly but still needs to be kept for future reference.

A business’s operations will not be affected if these files are removed from its servers. However, if employees need the data, they can always retrieve them with file stubbing.

2. Data Retention

The duration a file is stored in a data backup is much shorter compared to one stored in an archive.

Depending on how important the data is, it may be updated daily or even multiple times a day. Therefore, the data is only stored for a short period of time.

On the other hand, businesses use data archiving to store large amounts of data for many years. For this reason, the ability to store data over longer periods is very important.

Read More: Cybercrime — The Effects of Cybercrime & How to Protect Yourself Against It

3. Disaster Recovery

Data backup and disaster recovery are closely related to one another. IT professionals generally carry out data backups to protect the business’s information.

They will then conduct a separate process to transfer the data to an offsite location as part of their disaster recovery solution.

However, it can be difficult and costly for a business to implement a disaster recovery solution to its data archiving system.

This is because businesses will have to buy expensive archive systems for both the disaster recovery site and the production environment.

4. Accessing Data

Data backups are suitable for fast, large-scale recoveries. The data is written to deduplication appliances or tape libraries for quicker access to large volumes of information

Companies may use backup applications to protect their application softwares, OS files and individual data objects—though it’s suitable for larger-scale recoveries.

Data archiving, however, stores a business’s individual data objects, including email messages, files, databases and more. It provides fast access to stored data, so it’s easy to find, for example, an email from five years ago.

Unlike backup systems, data archives do not provide volume level or full server recoveries. They contain only a subset of a business’s data.

5. Financial Value

A common factor most IT departments in businesses are worried about is their budget.

Tiering and storing files in a data archiving system is more cost effective than using a data backup system. That is why most companies prefer to use a data archive as their primary method of storing data.

While a data backup system is costlier, it helps businesses recover quickly if their corrupted, stolen or lost data.

That is why it’s worth choosing a cloud data backup service. However, it is important you do your research, and don’t just choose the first service you come across.

Read More: The Importance of Endpoint Backup

Build a Reliable Backup and Recovery Strategy with Aegis

While data backup and data archiving have completely different purposes, they are vital for a business to operate efficiently.

Business owners must protect their confidential data from accidental loss or malicious attacks and are available and retrievable when needed.

Aegis is a prominent cloud service provider in Malaysia. With over a decade of backup and disaster recovery experience, we offer businesses data backup and restoration solutions at an affordable price.

Our cost-effective managed cloud disaster recovery solution, Disaster Recovery-As-A-Service (DRaaS), provides complimentary unlimited disaster recovery resources.

To ease the burden on IT backup administrators, we have the expertise to plan and execute complimentary unlimited disaster recovery drills to lower the business’s risk of being unable to recover from a disaster.

A phishing attack is a serious threat to all organisations around the world. When effective cybersecurity practices and solutions are not enforced, organisations run the risk of becoming another cybercrime victim.

Therefore, businesses must take a proactive approach to cybersecurity. IT security leaders need to know how to identify and solve abnormalities in the business’s systems to prevent any damage.

In this article, we look at why organisations still fall victim to phishing attacks and the steps to fight them.

But First, What Is Phishing?

Phishing is a type of cyberattack that everyone should learn about in order to protect themselves and ensure email security.

A type of social engineering attack, cybercriminals use phishing to steal confidential information such as credit card details, bank information and passwords.

Hackers generally pretend to be reputable companies, friends, or acquaintances in a fake message or email. They trick a user into opening a malicious link, which then instals malware into their system.

Moreover, once a hacker enters a business’s system, they can access their online accounts and personal data, compromising connected systems, such as point-of-sale terminals.

Sometimes, they also hijack entire computer networks until a ransom fee is delivered.

Read More: Human Error: The biggest threat to your business

5 Reasons Why Phishing Attacks are So Successful

1. Lack of Awareness

The main reason why phishing attacks are so successful is the lack of employee training on cybersecurity issues such as phishing and malware.

Businesses should train their employees to be cautious of any suspicious emails and messages they receive and know the steps to take if they accidentally open a malicious link.

2. Cybercriminals Are Well-Funded

The massive success that cybercriminals have had in recent years means they have an abundance of funds to invest in scams.

Therefore, they can invest in technical resources to make their scams run more efficiently. For example, they can increase the number of scams they send and enhance the authenticity of their fake messages or the complexity of their campaigns.

It also enables cybercriminals to branch out into new sectors, such as the healthcare industry.

3. Malware Is Becoming More Sophisticated

The old (but effective) technique of luring users into clicking malicious links will soon be overshadowed by much more cunning and hard-to-avoid tactics.

Phishing attacks, CEO fraud, ransomware and more are simply going to get worse without appropriate solutions and processes to defend against them.

4. Low-Cost Phishing Tools Are Easily Available

The availability of phishing tools and the rise of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) has allowed amateurs with little IT knowledge to enter the market and compete with sophisticated criminal organisations.

5. Businesses Are Not Doing Their Due Diligence

Staff awareness training isn’t the only step organisations can take to protect themselves from phishing scams.

Most companies are not doing enough to reduce the risks associated with phishing and ransomware. Here are two examples:

• Insufficient Backup Processes
  • In the event of a phishing attack, many organisations do not have a proper backup process. This prevents them from quickly restoring their data on their servers, user workstations and other endpoint devices.

• Lack Of User Testing
  • Many businesses do not have proper procedures in place to test their users, leaving them unable to specify which employees are the most susceptible to a phishing attack.

However, by conducting a simulated phishing attack, businesses can determine whether their employees are vulnerable to phishing emails. This enables them to take immediate action to improve their cybersecurity strategy.

Read More: What’s Your Contingency Plan when Endpoint Devices are lost?

7 Tips To Help Prevent A Phishing Attack

• Monitor your online accounts regularly
• Keep your browser updated
• Do not open email links from unknown sources
• Be wary of pop-up windows
• Never give out personal information over email
• Be mindful of social and emotional lures
• Stay updated on the latest phishing attacks

Protect Your Data Against Phishing

While phishing attacks are difficult to tackle, you can minimise your risk of falling victim to scammers by consulting a cybersecurity expert.

Aegis is a trusted cloud service provider in Malaysia with comprehensive data backup solutions. Our 1Price-Any-Technologies (1PAT) service empowers businesses to own a robust cloud backup and disaster recovery solution at an affordable price.

We also provide a Security Operations Centre (SOC) as part of our disaster recovery solutions.

Be it data disaster recovery or SOC, Aegis provides fully managed data protection services to our customers. Our goal is to help enterprises determine their areas of weakness and reduce data breach risks with our industry-standard services.

Unless you’re constantly keeping up with the latest cybersecurity news, cloudjacking may not be a term you are familiar with. A new entry point for ransomware attacks, they make data backup an even more critical component of any cybersecurity plan.

Cloud computing has been transforming businesses in the modern world, with more and more companies relying on this technology. Many elements have led to the rise of cloud solutions, such as:

• The need to access data from anywhere
• Improvement of business continuity
• The rapid adoption of mobile devices for work
• The switch to a hybrid or remote workforce

And although cloud computing is beneficial for businesses, it also faces a unique set of dangers, such as cloudjacking. Discover what cloudjacking is and why you should be worried about it.

What is Cloudjacking?

Transferring your data to the cloud can streamline business operations and make them more agile. However, it has also opened up new opportunities for cybercriminals to access your confidential data.

Cloudjacking (or cloud account hijacking) is when a cybercriminal takes over a business’s cloud account, typically by some form of social engineering.

Businesses are an attractive target to hackers due to their extensive resources. Moreover, with the frenzy of cloud adoption in recent years, companies now have more cloud accounts than they may realise.

As a result, cloudjacking may become a big problem. This is because, as companies do not always keep track of all their accounts, cloudjacking attacks can often go undetected, allowing criminals to access your sensitive data.

Read More: Stop Using Old Data Backup Systems: Protect Your Data

What Can Hackers Do When They Breach a Cloud Account?

There are several things a cybercriminal can do once they log into a business’s cloud account. Some of the dangers associated with cloudjacking include:

• Adding new users or locking your own users out of the system
• Infecting your cloud storage and computers with ransomware and malware
• Changing your business’s cloud security settings
• Stealing or deleting cloud-stored files
• Accessing any stored credit card details
• Sending phishing or spam emails from your email accounts

5 Ways You Can Protect Your Business Against Cloudjacking

As more data and sensitive information are being transferred to the cloud, the security risk of cloudjacking is something many businesses need to be aware of and protect against.

If you want to safeguard your business against cloudjacking, here are five tips to keep in mind:

1. Limit Employee Access to Sensitive Information

If you want to improve your protection against cyberattacks, limiting access to sensitive information to only a handful of people is best.

By only allowing trusted employees to access your business’s critical data, you’re decreasing the number of high-value targets and providing more security to your storage platform.

This way, if hackers get ahold of non-admin cloud accounts, they won’t be able to steal critical data.

2. Encourage the Use of VPNs

Some of your employees will likely work on the go, connecting to unsecured networks such as public Wi-Fi. However, doing so leaves them open to cyberattacks from cybercriminals with access to the same connection.

They may pose as legitimate websites to inject malware into your employee’s device or obtain critical data, such as passwords or your customers’ personal information.

Therefore, to increase your data security, you must encourage your workers to use a business virtual private network (VPN).

This encrypts their connection, allowing them to protect their information from hackers.

3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication

One of the essential ways to enhance your cybersecurity is to create strong passwords. However, this does not mean you are completely immune to cyberattacks.

We recommend enabling multi-factor authentication across your business’s cloud accounts. It will help prevent cybercriminals from accessing your information even if they get ahold of your passwords and login details.

4. Contact A Cybersecurity Expert

Employing the help of a cybersecurity expert is one of the best ways to enhance your protection against cybercriminals. They will reconfigure your settings and install other protective software to protect your business’s IT network and infrastructure.

Moreover, these IT security professionals will also help review any possible vulnerabilities and threats in your system and can fix them immediately.

5. Use a Cloud Security Software

Businesses are increasingly using mobile devices as part of their operations. However, they often aren’t monitored and, as a result, can also be taken over by mobile malware.

It’s important to install cloud security software on your mobile devices. This type of software allows you to:

• Remotely update a device
• Remotely lock or wipe a device
• Keep out unauthorised devices
• Review cloud applications for potential security risks.

Read More: Top 3 Major Causes of Endpoint Data Loss

Maximise Your Cybersecurity

Cloudjacking has become a major problem that companies must address in their cybersecurity strategy.

As a leading cloud disaster recovery service provider in Malaysia, Aegis can help your business in ensuring you have a secure and productive cloud environment.

Aegis Cloud Production Environment (CPE) is a hosting service with complimentary disaster recovery services and daily backup with retention to a secondary location.

Moreover, we can carry out our robust enterprise data recovery services on-site or off-site, depending on your needs and budget.

The need for cybersecurity in the healthcare industry is higher than ever before. This is because, over the past decade, cyberattacks on healthcare organisations have increased dramatically.

Like many industries, healthcare has seen a rise in digitalisation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many medical organisations have switched to digital health monitoring systems to improve workflow efficiency and patient care.

However, as healthcare organisations benefit from adopting cloud and database systems, the increased connectivity and ease of data sharing are also what make the industry vulnerable.

Therefore, in this article, we will discuss why hackers often target medical institutions and how healthcare leaders can enhance cybersecurity in the healthcare industry.

Why Are Healthcare Organisations A Prime Target For Cybercriminals?

1. Valuable Information

Cybercriminals often target healthcare institutions because they possess a large amount of data that is of high monetary and intelligence value to attackers.

Examples of critical and confidential data include:

• A patient’s financial information (e.g., credit cards, bank account details, etc.)
• A patient’s health history and information
• Confidential medical research data

2. Non-Secure Medical Devices

Hospitals have an extensive network of devices connected to servers that store valuable information.

For example, MRI machines are connected to numerous workstations that allow operators to work with MRI pictures. However, these devices can become potential entry points for cybercriminals to enter a hospital’s servers.

3. Healthcare Workers Are Not Familiar With Online Risks

Medical professionals do not have the knowledge to recognise and mitigate online threats. They also work long hours and have tight deadlines – which means they do not have the time to stay up to date with the latest data protection practices.

Read More: The need for endpoint security isn’t going away

4 Ways to Enhance Cybersecurity In The Healthcare Industry

Cybersecurity issues in the healthcare industry can pose a serious threat to our data and privacy. Below are four effective cybersecurity measures that offer protection against the cyber threats plaguing the healthcare industry.

1. Generate Awareness

Firstly, educating medical staff about cyber risks and how to mitigate them is one of the most effective ways to improve cybersecurity in the healthcare industry.

Some areas of training that can help medical professionals better anticipate and prepare for cybersecurity threats include:

Spotting Phishing Scams

• Knowing the signs of a phishing attempt, such as typos in email addresses and improper grammar, can help employees better identify and avoid them.

Being Aware Of Suspicious Employee Activity

• Another effective way to prevent internal threats is to encourage employees to keep an eye out for other workers. If every staff member is vigilant enough, it will be difficult for the threat actors to find an opening for an attack.

2. Ensure All Software Are Up To Date

Moreover, many healthcare companies are unaware of the significance of software updates and how outdated software makes their servers vulnerable to security breaches.

Software updates usually incorporate necessary upgrades that protect a system from security attacks and threats. They include critical patches to security holes, which makes them extremely important for digital safety and cybersecurity.

3. Develop a Backup Storage and Restoration Plan

The best way to minimise the damage caused by a cyberattack is to have a data backup storage and restoration plan in place.

Not only does it help protect a medical institution’s data, but it also helps them restore their lost data and resume their operations as quickly as possible.

4. Adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

While not mandatory in Malaysia, the HIPAA can serve as a benchmark for sensitive patient data protection.

It limits what information can be disclosed, how it can be used, and outlines the standards and guidelines that dictate how personal health information is handled.

Read More: Understanding RPO and RTO to Better Strategise Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data with Aegis

In healthcare, the patient’s health is a top priority. However, cyberattacks pose a huge risk to patient safety and privacy.

Hackers can access, steal or alter a patient’s private data, endangering a patient’s health or life.

Therefore, medical facilities must step up and protect their data from malware, ransomware, human errors and more.

Aegis is a cybersecurity expert that can protect medical institutions from falling victim to cyberattacks. With over a decade of cloud disaster recovery experience, we offer data backup, restoration and replication services at affordable prices.

Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR) is an efficient enterprise-grade disaster recovery solution that ensures rapid IT infrastructure and data recovery. We provide proactive monitoring of your systems and are available round the clock if you seek technical assistance.

Managed hosting providers have grown over the past years as public cloud services have become the default for new businesses and startups.

However, it is not just for new businesses, it can be used for companies with legacy applications as well.

Most times, organisations with old applications that would not work in a cloud environment would:

• Continue running in-house applications
• Migrate them to a managed hosting service
• Redesign the application to operate in the cloud environment

Which option a company chooses depends on its budget and its needs. However, a managed hosting service is a much easier solution compared to the other two options.

It is a flexible option for business owners due to its customisable solutions. These solutions are also adjustable as your volume grows and changes.

Read on to learn more about managed hosting and why it is ideal to migrate your legacy applications to the cloud environment.

What is Managed Hosting?

Managed hosting is a model where a third-party service provider manages their customers’ hardware and application management responsibilities.

The provider will support your business server’s setup, administration, and overall support.

They can also build the server to meet your needs and choose an operating system suitable for your legacy application.

Some of the areas commonly covered include:

• Operating System (OS) deployment and management
• Application deployment and management
• Security monitoring
• Network infrastructure monitoring
• Support

Read More: Why Outsourcing Backup Improves Business Success?

The Benefits of Managed Hosting

1. Save Costs And Time

Small businesses often do not have the time or talent to manage their cloud services. Besides that, hiring someone to work on cloud services can be costly.

However, businesses and developers can save both time and money by offloading their cloud administration, management and maintenance to third-party providers.

2. Improve Performance And Reliability

Managed hosting services specialise in understanding the optimal configuration of cloud services, thus enhancing speed and reliability.

This includes assessing which servers, networks, and caching solutions will best serve your application.

3. Enhanced Security And Data Backup

Another important benefit of managed hosting is that you will never have to worry about losing your data. Its services come with enhanced security measures, including firewalls, managing your SSL certificates, and conducting security patching.

Furthermore, managed hosting providers can also perform regular backups for you, so your data is never lost.

4. Multiple Uses

Managed hosting has other uses as well. Examples include hosting web apps, analytics, big data processing, data storage and backups, disaster recovery and development ops.

5. Dedicated IT Support

Lastly, managed hosting providers offer businesses dedicated, 24/7 support. Therefore, if your business experiences downtime, you can relax knowing you have a full-service support team who can solve your issues.

As a result, for companies who want to benefit from the cloud whilst continuing to use legacy applications, managed hosting is the best solution to take.

They can benefit from cloud connectivity, thus allowing them to connect their managed servers to the public cloud or other data centre locations.

Read More: Bullet-Proof Your Disaster Recovery Plan

How to Choose the Right Provider

There are many advantages to hiring a managed hosting provider. However, choosing the right provider can be overwhelming.

Here are five essential factors you should consider:

• The cost of their services
• The type of website or application you are building
• The public clouds that the hosting provider utilises
• Data sovereignty concerns
• Support availability

Aegis Cloud Production Environment (CPE)

Dealing with old applications that do not operate in a cloud environment is a common challenge many businesses face today.

If you want to migrate your legacy application to the cloud, you can redesign your app, but it will be expensive and risky.

You can also continue running your app yourself, but you will need to bear the additional costs. Examples include purchasing costly hardware and paying for IT staff and training.

Additionally, managed hosting offers a better alternative for businesses. It is less expensive, highly secure and your IT staff can concentrate on other important matters.

Aegis CPE is a hosting service with hourly virtual machine (VM) replication and daily data backup with retention to a secondary location. Aegis CPE also comes bundled with complimentary backup and disaster recovery service to customers.

At Aegis, our effective and proven solutions protect your critical business data and software. Moreover, with daily backup, we ensure data resiliency and uninterrupted hosting services.

A data backup solution is crucial to protect and maintain a business’s operations. As more companies move their data to the cloud, staying current with rapidly changing technology is more critical than ever.

As more companies move their data to the cloud, staying current with rapidly changing technology is more critical than ever.

However, one of the big mistakes many businesses make is thinking that cloud storage (or file sharing tools) is the same as a cloud backup.

In this article, we will discuss the differences between cloud storage and backup and why file sharing tools are inadequate as a business’s data backup solution.

What is the Difference Between Cloud Storage & Sharing and Data Backup?

1. Cloud Storage & Sharing

File sharing services are a network of connected data servers you can use to share and access your files across multiple devices.

Moreover, as files are updated, so is the version in the cloud. Examples of file sharing services include Dropbox and Google Drive.

2. Cloud Data Backup

A cloud data backup will copy and archive your files onto a remote server. This makes recovering your files and data easier in case of a system failure, cyberattack or natural disaster.

While both terms may seem similar at first glance, they are not. Moreover, businesses should not use file sharing tools as part of their data backup solution.

Read More: Are You Exposed to Workplace Security Risk?

Why Businesses Should Not Use File Sharing Tools As Their Backup Solution

Data protection has always been an important issue for businesses. Many business owners understand that they should move their data to the cloud for safekeeping.

However, far too many think that file sharing tools are enough. Yes, businesses are backing up their data, but they’re actually just storing a copy in a live cloud-sharing service.

A proper data backup means storing your data in an off-site location. It is also much better than simply creating or storing your data on a cloud storage server.

Here are several other reasons why file sharing tools are not a replacement for a proper data backup and recovery solution.

1. Cloud Storage have Retention Policies

Cloud storage services have file retention policies for deleted items. This means you could lose files that you thought would be saved in the ‘trash’ until you physically removed them.

For example, Google Workspace automatically deletes your data once the default retention period expires (30-55 days).

2. Cloud Storage Can Fall Victim to Ransomware & Malware Attacks

Cyberattacks can occur in various ways, such as through insecure and fraudulent websites, software downloads and spam mail.

And while cloud storage services offer protection against ransomware, they are not entirely immune to it.

Moreover, you will be left at a complete loss if your device is infected with ransomware that then spreads to your other cloud storage accounts.

3. Data Can Be Deleted

With cloud backup, you can grant different levels of access to your employees. Therefore, you will reduce the risk of unauthorised persons deleting your business’s data.

However, it’s not the same for file sharing tools. All your employees will have access to the business’s data and can accidentally (or maliciously) delete them, leaving your business at risk.

4. Data Loss Due to Syncing Errors

Another way that you can lose data from a cloud storage account is through syncing errors.

If something goes wrong with your device while syncing your data, your files can potentially be deleted or corrupted.

5. Files Can Be Overwritten

A cloud storage service will keep the latest version of a file available. Any changes made to a file are automatically reflected on a synced device or directly in the cloud programme.

However, this means that you will be unable to obtain the initial copy of your file.

Read More: Understanding RPO and RTO to Better Strategise Disaster Recovery

Stay Protected With Aegis

Businesses need to adopt backup and recovery solutions that keep their files secure. This is because downtime and loss of access to critical data can negatively impact any organisation’s revenue, productivity, and reputation.

At Aegis, our services are designed to help our clients build and maintain business resiliency. Aegis Cloud Endpoint Backup automatically backs up data in all their endpoint devices and protects their business’s operations from downtime and data loss.

With our hassle-free maintenance and management cloud backup and disaster recovery solutions, our clients can rest easy knowing their data is safe.