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Summary: There are several reasons why Office 365 data backup is important. Companies face data loss and compliance violations because of ransomware attacks and accidental deletions on a regular basis. Having a backup of your data helps a lot in these cases to recover all the essential information and get the workflow going.
Are you still under this misconception that your data is safe because it is stored on cloud? While your thinking isn’t entirely wrong, you aren’t entirely right either. Just because Microsoft protects the infrastructure and hosts, it doesn’t mean that it necessarily safeguards your data as well. The responsibility to protect data falls upon users only but they are unaware about it. This can put data at risk and may even lead to data loss.
Knowing how to distinguish between backup and retention is important for IT admins to protect data in a better way and to comply with regulatory standards. Read ahead to know about the difference between backup and retention. We will also talk about the Microsoft 365 Shared Responsibility model, the responsibilities of users and core reasons to backup data.
Reasons to Backup Office 365
Take a look at the main reasons below that help you answer the query “Why backup office 365”.
Deletion of Data
Accidental or deliberate deletion of data may result in data loss if there is no backup of it. Any frustrated employee can delete data to cause harm or by mistake, data can get deleted while clearing out junk files. So, if you have a backup solution, you can easily retrieve or restore your data back to its location.
Ransomware Attacks and Phishing
Ransomware attackers intrude and get access to the data of an organization through a cloned email with an attachment containing a virus to encrypt the data.
But when you have a backup of your data, you can instantly recover it without having to give into the demands of the attacker. Similarly, a new feature Microsoft advanced threat protection safeguards your data from phishing.
Entry of Malware and Virus through OneDrive
You can sync your OneDrive data to a desktop and vice versa. It can increase the risk of virus and malware attacks, thus, putting your data at risk. In a scenario like this, your desktop is attacked and affected by malware or virus. If you have configured the OneDrive application, that too will get infected, leading to the corruption of your data.
Insider Threats
Threat to data is not always external, it can arise from inside the company as well. A disgruntled employee can leak confidential data or credentials out of malice or for personal gains. Accidental deletions and unauthorized modifications can also occur. This is a key reason why Microsoft 365 data backup is essential.
Limitations of eDiscovery
eDiscovery tool of Microsoft 365 is used for data retention, but users have the misconception that it works for backup as well. It is generally used for legal purposes like identifying and retrieving archived data of an organization to use it as evidence in litigation or inquiry. However, it is not a complete backup mechanism.
Retention Gaps
If your retention policy isn’t configured properly or has gaps, then it can cause permanent data loss and serious compliance violations. In many cases, critical emails or files may be permanently removed without recovery options. This might lead to operational disruptions, audit failures and increased risk of regulatory penalties for the organization.
Outage and Shutdown
Many a time, users witness outages and shutdowns of Microsoft Cloud services during which they are not able to access any data. In such times, Microsoft data backup proves to be very helpful. It allows organizations to restore access to critical emails and files. It also helps reduce downtime and minimize productivity loss even when cloud services are temporarily unavailable or disrupted.
Illicit Consent Acquired by Third-Party Applications
Sometimes third-party applications installed on your Microsoft 365 account grab your consent illegally through a phishing attack or by inserting illicit code and stealing your data. In such serious cases, backup of your data is your safety net as you are prone to illicit consent but are still fully safe and secure.
What is Microsoft 365 Shared Responsibility Model?
It is important to understand that for all public cloud services, all the users should follow the shared responsibility model of Microsoft 365. Users must know which security tasks are to be handled by the cloud service provider and which tasks are their responsibility.
The workload responsibility varies with the nature of the service – whether it is Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or an on-premises deployment. The last one is not a cloud service. Below we are presenting workload responsibility distribution in a tabular form.
| Responsibility | On-Premises | IaaS | PaaS | SaaS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classification and Accountability of Data | User | User | User | User |
| Client and End-Point Protections | User | User | User | Shared |
| Identity and Access Management | User | User | Shared | Shared |
| Application-Level Controls | User | User | Shared | Microsoft |
| Network Controls | User | Shared | Microsoft | Microsoft |
| Host Infrastructure | User | Shared | Microsoft | Microsoft |
| Physical Security | User | Microsoft | Microsoft | Microsoft |
What are the Responsibilities of Users?
In an on-premises deployment (the conventional way) all the responsibilities are towards you, i.e., the user. In cloud service, some of these are shifted partially and some entirely to the cloud service provider as we move from on-premises services>>IaaS>>PaaS>>SaaS., as shown in the table above.
Classification and Accountability of Data and Compliance Obligation
Users should identify, label, and classify their data correctly to fulfill any compliance obligation. They should also distinguish between sensitive and public data to move the data to the cloud accordingly.
SaaS solutions like Office365 and Dynamics 365 can protect the data of customers like Office Lockbox and Data Loss Prevention till some extent. But ultimately, it is the user’s responsibility to manage, classify, and configure the solutions corresponding to their unique security and compliance requirements.
For PaaS solutions, customers need to configure and establish the process to protect their data. They should also configure a feature like Azure Rights Management that will help them protect their data. This feature even allows users to easily integrate into SaaS solutions.
For IaaS Solutions, customers must make sure that all the data which is stored and transferred is encrypted. It is necessary to apply the principle of Least Privilege to protect their data. To meet compliance, customers should audit all virtual devices which are deployed within their solutions.
Client and End-Point Protection
Since clients use multiple devices to carry out their tasks, it becomes essential to set definite limits and responsibilities for devices that are used to connect with the cloud service. Cloud solution providers like Microsoft 365 offer capabilities to manage end-point devices like Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. They provide secure device management, PC management, and mobile application management capabilities. IT admins of the organization just need to configure these features to protect their endpoint devices.
Identity and Access Management
Identity and access management in Office 365 enables the users to access, restore, and protect the resources in their organization. In PaaS and SaaS solutions, it is a shared responsibility and needs proper implementation. Tasks for properly setting up IAM include, configuring an identity provider, configuring administrative services, establishing, and configuring user identities, implementing service access control based on role, and administrative control in both users and control points. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is an example that provides multifactor authentication, identity protection, prevention against accidental deletion, cyberthreats, etc.
IaaS solutions need customers to configure and manage the identity and access controls over the managed hosts and virtual devices. Though it supports identity and access management for virtual devices, solutions like Azure AD need configuration at the virtual device level. While running IaaS services, you should pay attention to the additional security and compliance responsibilities.
Application-Level Control
Applications and services managed by PaaS, like web services, docDb, IoT, analytics, media services, etc., provide a completely secured solution and thus reduce the responsibilities of the users.
In IaaS, it is the responsibility of users to protect and secure the operating system and application layers of virtual devices they deploy from any attack and not compromise.
Network Control
Network control comprises configuring, managing, and securing the network components like virtual networking and balancing load DNS and gateways. It helps the services to communicate and interoperate.
In SaaS solutions, management and security of network controls are taken care of as part of the software as the network infrastructure is extracted from them.
In PaaS solutions, just like SaaS solutions, the service provider does the configuration.
In IaaS solutions, it is the shared responsibility of the user and the service provider to deploy, manage, secure, and configure networking solutions that are to be applied.
Host Infrastructure
Responsibility for host infrastructure comprises configuration management, securing compute, storage, and platform services. Host services like operating systems of the service will be operated and secured by a cloud solution provider.
In IaaS, it is shared responsibility with users in order to assure optimal configuration and security of the service. This responsibility comprises configuring permissions, and network access controls needed to ensure correct communication of networks and attaching and mounting of correct storage devices.
Physical Security
Parts of physical security comprise building facilities, servers, and networking devices. Cloud solution providers have security processes and policies for the protection of infrastructure from any unauthorized physical access maintenance. In case of occurrence of any disaster, then there is a new physical location as well for continued service(s). Other fields for security are capabilities like cooling, air quality management, device management, and power regulation.
Conclusion
If you depend solely on native retention features of Microsoft 365, then your data can get exposed to cyberthreats and even data loss. This mistake could result in heavy fines because of compliance violations. For a better understanding of why Office 365 backup is necessary, we’ve talked in detail about the Microsoft 365 Shared Responsibility model.
Frequently Asked Questions
A. Native retention policies are best for storing data for a long period of time, but they’re not a backup solution. For organizations looking for granular and Point-in-time recovery, backup is the best option.
A. If your data isn’t backed up, you can lose it because of ransomware attacks or malicious activity.
