Everyone knows how critical backing up data is. But simply backing up your organization’s data is not sufficient to protect it. You not only want to ensure you are able to recover data should a server crash, but you need to ensure that your valuable data remains under your control.
Protection of valuable data is critical to business today.If you are in an industry where regulation is heavy and consequences for data breaches are severe, data redundancy isn’t enough. You also have to ensure your network protects your data from being leaked inadvertently, or hacked deliberately.
Configuration Changes Can Have Unintended Consequences
Networks aren’t static entities. They are frequently reconfigured to accommodate new tasks, new users, or new partners. But when network configurations are changed, it’s not always easy to predict what will happen. A new configuration could unwittingly introduce risk. If that risk is detected before a data breach can occur, going back to the older configuration can protect data while engineers determine a safer way to reconfigure the network. Should a data breach occur after a network reconfiguration, being able to revert to a stable, secure network configuration can limit the damage.
Every device plugged into your network must be configured properly, and network managers have to know how all network devices are configured and secured. In the case of the massive Target data breach of 2013, where tens of millions of credit card accounts were compromised, Target may not have realized there was a third-party system from an HVAC vendor directly connected into its core network. Had they realized this right away, they might have addressed the issue and prevented the data breach by reverting to a configuration from before the HVAC vendor connected, and perhaps put the vendor’s system on a separate VLAN.
Misconfigurations and Data Breaches
Some people blame data breaches on obsolete technology, but network misconfigurations are more likely to be the cause of such a breach. Someone could, for example change a firewall setting and inadvertently allow traffic to or from a specific IP that should be kept out. Or, if someone incorrectly set file permissions on a server, he could expose data to risk. When an organization regularly backs up network configurations, the IT team can respond quickly to misconfigurations, reverting to secure configurations quickly, before there’s time for data to be compromised.
Few Companies Back Up Network Configurations
When network configurations aren’t backed up, businesses risk data breaches and inability to carry out services.A 2013 survey by UK firm Opsview found that fully one-third of companies surveyed did not back up network device configurations. The risks of such a lackadaisical approach to network security are huge. Should an organization experience a failure of a device on its network, if it didn’t have a backup of the network configuration, getting the device working again could be difficult. When an organization regularly backs up network configurations, however, recovery from a device failure is easier.
A network configuration that’s incorrect can seriously harm an organization’s ability to operate internally, work with vendors and partners, and serve customers. Among the organizations surveyed by Opsview that do backup network configurations, one-fifth back network configurations up manually. Not only is this time-consuming, it’s more error-prone than running automatic network configuration backups. Furthermore, it would only be natural that an organization would postpone a manual network configuration backup should a problem occur that demanded more immediate attention.
Data Breaches Can Be Avoided or Limited With Network Configuration Backup
Network configuration backups should be an integral part of any organization’s IT monitoring program. When network configurations are regularly backed up, it’s easier to detect problems before they occur, and contain them when they do occur by quickly reverting to secure configurations. The result is better business continuity, cost savings, and time savings. Without regular network configuration backups, should a network device fail, configuration changes could be lost, and network administrators could have to guess network configuration settings upon replacement of the device.
BackBox makes backing up network configuration settings easy, and ensures that this critical task doesn’t slip through the cracks due to a busy IT team. With BackBox, misconfigurations can be taken care of much more quickly, because you always have the configuration backup to revert to once a problem is detected. The result is a lower risk of data breach, and a faster recovery should a data breach occur.
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