March 31 is World Backup Day; a day, say organisers, to pause and take stock of your data backup. The information storage company Iron Mountain offers some security advice:
No matter how and where you create and store your backups, the end-to-end security of your data is crucial. No matter which form(s) of data storage you choose, you should be encrypting data from the time it leaves your facility until it is returned and restored in your enterprise.
You also need a verifiable chain of custody, which describes any journey your data takes – regulators demand it. In fact, those same regulators may want to know if you are complying with the latest data-centre security standards, especially if you take the cloud route.
To finesse all these challenges, work carefully with your backup service partner to establish the appropriate level of data security. And don’t forget about testing. Your backup data is useless if you can’t get it when you need it, or if the data is corrupted. Any backup service you use should come with regularly scheduled testing to ensure that all systems are ready in case of a business interruption.
