March 31 is World Backup Day — an annual reminder to protect your data from loss and theft. Regular backups and keeping offline copies remain essential. However, in an increasingly digital and cloud-based world, threats evolve rapidly. That makes several aspects of backup strategy more important than ever.
Three often-overlooked components of a modern backup strategy
“There are parts of the IT environment that many organizations don’t think to secure, yet they are critical to maintaining operations during an outage,” says Klas Palmér, security expert at Barracuda Networks.
Palmér highlights three frequently neglected elements of a modern backup approach:
- Back up identity and access systems
Many organizations use cloud-based services to manage identities and permissions, such as Microsoft Entra ID. These platforms contain definitive information about which users and groups can access which resources. It’s a common misconception that these services automatically retain comprehensive backups. Default cloud settings often only retain data for 30 days, and some items — for example security groups — may be permanently lost if deleted. If you lose the contents of Entra ID due to an accident, sabotage, or malware, the organization can quickly lose functioning access controls. Rebuilding everything manually is time-consuming and costly, Palmér warns. - Don’t restore blindly
Even when backups are properly performed, hidden risks can remain. Data that has been stored for a long time may contain malware that went undetected originally. Restoring files without first scanning them can reintroduce threats into your network. Implementing a scan-and-verify step before restoration helps prevent accidental reinfection. - Test your backups before you need them
The worst time to discover that a backup fails is during an incident, such as a ransomware attack. It’s essential to prepare both technology and people ahead of time. Even simple backup solutions require staff to know how to use them; employees must be confident in the recovery process and practiced in restoring data before a crisis occurs, Palmér concludes.
Use World Backup Day as an opportunity not only to confirm that backups exist, but to ensure they truly work when it counts.