Successful managed service providers know their real value isn’t in managing a layer of technology, it’s in solving problems. These days no problem looms larger than how to be resilient and adaptive in the face of accidental or malicious data loss or theft.
Some clients may not grasp the critical importance of properly protecting SaaS data, or just view it merely as another storage solution. Managed service providers need to emphasize exactly how SaaS backup can boost a client’s overall security posture and business resilience. Here are the top five security benefits of SaaS backup solutions clients should understand:
- Backup Automation
- Data encryption
- Faster recovery and stronger resilience
- Improved Access Control
- Easier compliance management
Backup Automation: Countering Human Error
The number of SaaS apps in use by mid-market organizations is tipping the scales at 100 plus. Businesses utilizing SaaS applications need to properly store and protect data generated from SaaS apps because SaaS providers are not responsible for backing up data. The data generated from all those applications must be stored and backed up for security reasons, specific industry data retention rules, and to ensure quick restores in the case of data loss or theft.
One of the big advantages of SaaS backup software is the ability to automate the backup process across the entire SaaS footprint. Manually backing up all these apps is tedious and time-consuming. Allocating valuable IT staff to manual backups diverts them from more critical tasks.
While some SaaS application vendors supply periodic snapshots of data, these vendor-supplied backups vary widely in quality. Even when available, sometimes these backups are little more than unencrypted .CSV files. Data retention periods also can vary across vendors – anywhere from 90 days to a year. If manual backups are skipped for a long period, access to older data may be lost. Automating the backup of a long and growing list of SaaS data allows staff to work on more important matters without having to keep track of manual backup schedules.
There’s another big bonus to automating all those backups: eliminating human error. Surprisingly, human error accounts for a significant portion of SaaS data loss. In a report commissioned by Asigra, the Enterprise Strategy Group found that the second most-common cause of data loss (33%) was human error. With problems ranging from miscommunication, accidental deletions or even configuration errors that lead to security breaches, overworked or inattentive staff can create real damage.
The automation found in reliable SaaS backup applications makes it easy to configure backups from many applications easily and efficiently. They should also allow flexibility in scheduling backups. The bottom line is that automation boosts efficiency while removing costly human error.
Data encryption: Preventing Big Theft
Data encryption is another strong feature of SaaS backup applications - stored data should always be encrypted. This is doubly important now when ransomware gangs increasingly target backup and stored data first to make recovery difficult for the targeted organization.
But data is seldom at rest, and when downloading data, a lot of information is in transit – sensitive and mission-critical data. Organizations should know that not all SaaS backup solutions encrypt data (both at rest and in transit) so care is advised when choosing a backup solution.
Data in transit between networks, clouds, or between servers are at risk of interception by malicious actors. This type of data theft can be relatively unsophisticated. Just think of an unprotected public Wi-Fi connection. However, emails, instant messaging and files can be accessed by relatively more sophisticated attacks such as IP or DNS spoofing.
- Wi-Fi networks: Bad actors can set up fake public Wi-Fi access points (like those found in a café) so they can intercept Wi-Fi data.
- Public networks: If a remote employee is not using a company-provided VPN, an unauthorized user can potentially access unencrypted data over the internet.
- Network devices: Yes, even routers and switches can be compromised. Un encrypted data moving through a compromised router can be directed anywhere.
An article by enterprise identity management company BeyondTrust cited information from both Google and Verizon for some eye-opening data points.
- 86 percent of data breaches include some form of stolen credentials.
- Credential issues account for 60 percent of compromise factors.
- 74 percent of breaches involve human error, including allowing credentials to be stolen in phishing scams or by downloading malware.
Top data privacy violation fines, settlements and penalties
- Didi Global: $1.19 billion (2022 fine)
- Amazon: $877 million (2021 fine)
- Equifax: $575 million (from 2017 breach)
- Instagram: $403 million (2022 fine)
- Tik Tok: #370 million (2023 fin
Source: Statista, September 2023.
Data Recovery: A Resilience Requirement
It’s easy to think of cyber security in terms of prevention, of ensuring valuable resources are locked down and secure. However, putting all your security eggs in the prevention basket is never a good idea. The ability to bounce back and return to normal operations when a critical data disaster strike is the hallmark of good IT operations.
Any good data disaster recovery plan includes (or assumes) the ability to quickly access and restore data that’s either unavailable or lost. Better SaaS backup solutions not only make it easier to store SaaS data, they also make it easy to restore data from saved data sets as well.
Managed service providers have an opportunity to highlight the essential truth that effective disaster recovery hinges on fast, efficient access to recently stored data. Features such as one-touch or low-touch restore become invaluable during data emergencies, ensuring swift and reliable recovery.
Imagine if a natural disaster struck a data center hosting critical SaaS solutions. Clients who have set up a schedule of automated backups know they can restore to other locations quickly and efficiently.
Manually downloading SaaS data in an emergency is time consuming. Organizations trying to rapidly restore data from SaaS applications may have to deal with API call restrictions (or added costs). Either way, an unfolding data disaster is the wrong time to face restrictions on data flow from a SaaS services provider.
Access control: Away from Prying Eyes
Insider threats are a known danger, but a disgruntled employee is only one type of threat. More common is the user whose account and access information has been compromised (as in a phishing attack). The goal of many types of nefarious cyber activities is to get access to login credentials or admin.
Given that backups are a specific target of ransomware gangs, stellar SaaS backup solutions should feature ways to enhance access control. Better SaaS backup solutions should go beyond role-based access control (RBAC) and offer additional features to secure access to data.
Multifactor authentication is always a strong tool, but some SaaS backup solution providers have found a way to go a step further. SaaSAssure, powered by Asigra, allows users of its SaaS backup platform to enable multiperson authentication (MPA). This is an industry-first in account access: multiple approvals are necessary for potentially harmful actions to stored data--even if an attacker possesses (stolen) admin credentials. These additional approvals from specified users act as a safeguard against unauthorized data manipulation or deletion.
Securing Customer Privacy: Compliance Made Easier
Data security breaches can result in ransomware gang payouts, exfiltrated data, and lost data. But there is an additional level of threat that breaches pose if the data that’s stolen or accessed is customer data. Those customers, in turn, face potential threats of ID theft and fraud. All of this can damage an organization’s reputation in the marketplace among investors and customers alike. It can lead, also, to unwanted regulatory scrutiny or even fines.
There have been so many breaches of customer data that government regulators have stepped in with new consumer/customer data privacy laws. These laws focus on new or enhanced requirements placed on companies to ensure the privacy of customer data. In 2023, five US states passed their own data privacy laws, with more states considering new legislation this year.
These are layered over industry and regional regulations which call for protecting and safeguarding customer data privacy. HIPPA data rules cover medical patient data in the healthcare industry and GDPR in the European Union requires clear opt-out rules and the retention of secure customer data. Australia and Canada are considering new data privacy legislation as well – and the list of countries is expected to grow
Many SaaS solutions store customer information in some form whether it is billing records in an accounting app or detailed lists of contact information and purchases in CRM solution. Growing consumer and customer privacy regulations make it clear that customer data needs to be secured and stored safely by the company that generated that data. A major hurdle exists in storing all this data located in disparate SaaS provider accounts. A SaaS data backup solution makes that possible – and even relatively easy to do.
Summing Up
Managed service providers need to think proactively and anticipate the security concerns of their customers. That’s why broaching the subject of SaaS data backup solutions as part-and-parcel of good cyber security makes sense. It’s been known for a long time that cyber security works best when it is a layered defense. No one tool or technology can thwart every vector of attack or threat to data. SaaS backup solutions that enhances security should be a part of that layered defense.
