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Today's NIST topic is data recovery. The most obvious example of meeting this NIST standard is maintaining good backups. This is something we have all been doing forever, but as long as we have done it, I constantly see the same issues over and over. Here are a few tips:
- Read your daily backup logs. It doesn't help you if your backups are failing each night and no one is fixing that. Please make it someone's specific daily responsibility to do this.
- Routinely test your backups. You must prove that they work. There are two levels to this. The first is spot checks of file restores to prove you can retrieve your data. The second level is to actually attempt to recover a server. This can be done in a sandbox so you don't disrupt normal day to day activities. A full test recovery requires time and focus.
- Make sure your backups are encrypted and password protected. This is especially true on cloud backups as the Cyber insurance companies have been really focused on this area.
- If you have multi-factor authentication options to get to the backup management console, please fully implement them.
- Make sure you have a regular process that creates air gapped backups so that even if your systems are compromised, there is a good backup someplace physically separate and disconnected that cannot be accessed in any way from the main system.
If you need help sorting any of this out, please give us a call.
-Scott |
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