How to Use Cloud Backup to Protect Against Data Loss

 How to Use Cloud Backup to Protect Against Data Loss

Data loss happens, for example, when computers cannot be accessed owing to technical problems or when logical mistakes at a higher level of the software or hardware hierarchy result in non-accessibility.

However, data loss can also occur owing to an unexpected circumstance in the ordinary functioning of a computer, defective software (particularly operating systems), misconfiguration or hardware faults. In addition, external factors such as theft, overvoltage, liquids, fire or illegal use of the device might lead to data loss.

Operating problems might potentially lead to data loss. This includes, for example, inadvertent loss or overwriting of files, unintended formatting as well as mechanical damage to data media, but also switching off a computer without properly closing down the system. Most incidents of data loss are caused by such unintentional blunders owing to, for example, stress and time constraint.

Typical indirect explanations for the incidence of data loss are the activation of malware, flaws in the file system or attacks by crackers. These frequently involve earlier wrong operation or bad software or setup, which can subsequently result in data loss. Indirect causes, such as a current computer virus, are also frequent reasons for data loss, but do not per se produce a defective system; still, these causes can be averted by an ideally equipped system. Another reason for data loss due to malware might potentially be its targeted usage as sabotage.

Prevention

The chance of data loss occurring can be avoided by employing an effective server backup method and idea. Data loss can also be protected via redundancy of data carriers and storage systems, particularly in the case of hardware damage, but also cyberattacks and system failures. Redundancy does not aid against unintentional deletion or harm caused by malware.

However, what all preventative strategies have in common is that they can only lessen the danger of data loss, but not eradicate it per se. There is always the residual danger that backup systems are also damaged by a data loss and so a temporary or permanent data loss still happens.

Malware

In 2008, security organizations such as F-Secure projected "one million new malware programs". According to this, roughly 25,000 new malware programs - so-called unique samples, i.e. malware with a unique "fingerprint" according to MD5 - reach specifically set-up servers, e.g. honeypots, every day. In contrast, AV-Test was able to count ten million new malware applications in 2008 as early as mid-April. A major shift in the dissemination of malware could be noticed, he said: Trojan horses via e-mail file attachments are becoming increasingly rare, whereas attacks over the web, for example by means of drive-by download, are on the increase. In addition, the use of rootkit methods to mask the infection would become increasingly popular. According to the Californian malware expert Kindsight Security, an average of 13% of private PCs in Germany were infected by malware in 2012. According to a 2014 security research by Newsweek and Microsoft, "infection by malware" has risen up to top position among dangers to business IT. It has so supplanted "employee error and negligence" in second position. Seventy-four percent of research participants stated they have been impacted by malware events in the past two years. In the firms surveyed, e-mail stood at the top of the list of infection pathways. This was followed by online content, which propagated the virus via active content or "drive-by downloads".

Why is Malware Being Spread?

In 2006, a research looking at the motives of malware producers led to the following five key conclusions:

Greed: Attacks are undertaken out to acquire a personal, material gain from them.

Curiosity: assaults are carried out to satisfy personal curiosity.

Espionage: Attacks are carried out to purposefully get control of certain information.

Retaliation: Attacks are carried out to cause targeted damage for the fulfillment of personal emotions.

Conspiracy: Attacks are carried out in order to draw any pursuers onto false tracks.

Another component that has recently been introduced is so-called cyber warfare, which goes well beyond ordinary spying. A well-known example of sabotage by intelligence agencies was the Stuxnet network worm, which became public in 2010. This govware was used to influence Iranian nuclear facilities.

Examples of Rootkits

The corporation Sony BMG struck the news and had to recall numerous music CDs after it became known that the copy protection XCP ("Extended Copy Protection") employed by Sony for music CDs used methods of a rootkit to install itself in Windows computers. Although not a virus or Trojan horse itself, its sheer presence exposes the floodgates to more infections. The infection was revealed to be a Trojan horse.

In the interim, there was also a USB stick with fingerprint scanner from Sony, whose software buried a rootkit in the Windows directory for complete operation. However, according to a press release from Sony, manufacture and sale of this USB stick was halted again at the end of August 2007.

In 2006, the business Kinowelt sold and distributed DVDs in German-speaking regions with copy protection designed by Settec, which also installed a userland rootkit under Windows to hide processes.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a variation to use virtual computers as rootkits ("Virtual Machine Based Rootkits"). Work on this initiative, termed SubVirt, was backed by Microsoft and Intel, among others.

Countermeasures

In many circumstances, deleted data may be retrieved by techniques of data recovery. The odds of a successful recovery rely directly on the reason for the data loss. The kind of damaged data carrier is also significant for the selection of suitable countermeasures and their chances of success.

Overall cloud backup is the safest method of backup since it also protects against all local hazards, such as ransomware, fire, and vandalism.