Tag: Data Protection

Prevent data loss from remote endpoints and SaaS apps with Unitrends Cloud Backup

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Prevent data loss from remote endpoints and SaaS apps with Unitrends Cloud Backup

Working from home is now the norm when it comes to business. However, this now makes data loss more common as devices are now outside your network perimeter. Traditional backup solutions require your devices to be connected to your network for it to backup your files, so for every day those endpoints are not in the network, the risk of losing data becomes higher.

This is where a Unitrends Cloud Backup can help. Through a quick and easy download of the backup agent, you can immediately start protecting your data outside your network from accidental deletion or unsuspected data corruption.

Addressing the issues of bandwidth

In the Philippines, connectivity reliability and speed are the major factor why most companies don’t see cloud as a viable option for business operations. This is a concern for cloud backup due to the heavy initial upload that is needed to create the first backup that needs to maintained (succeeding backups are just small updates to the initial backup which usually are small uploads).

Unitrends Cloud Backup navigates this problem by allowing users to gradually upload their important file to lessen the amount of initial size of the upload. From there, they can prioritize which are the important files that need to be backed up and slowly create the bigger file snapshot to be maintained. The bandwidth consumption can also be controlled by the admin so that bandwidth usage of the solution does not interrupt the business operations of the end user and can even be automated to start at a less intrusive time.

Importance of SaaS Backup

SaaS applications such as Office 365 have grown in popularity since the pandemic started. They helped many to collaborate with colleagues remotely and served as a platform to share their important data. However, many are not aware that data in the cloud are not exempt from the dangers of data loss. According to Unitrends research, over 75% of SaaS applications experience data loss every year. These data losses can be attributed to either intentional or unauthorized deletion and corruption of files.

Creating a separate backup of files with Unitrends Cloud Backup can help mitigate this risk while giving your company a flexible way to recover the data on demand, saving you from incurring loss of productivity time and potential financial loss.

If you are interested in learning more about Unitrends Cloud Backup, you can contact us by filling out the form below and we will contact you as soon as we can!

Protecting your Data: 4 Key Reasons on Why You Should Have a Backup Solution

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Protecting your Data: 4 Key Reasons on Why You Should Have a Backup Solution

Data is something all businesses would agree is their most important asset, this is why they take multiple steps to ensure its security. However, when it comes to data protection, most companies are lax in its measures in the Philippines. This is alarming as data loss is not as uncommon to businesses as most seem to believe. Below are a few common scenarios in which a Backup solution can immediately address:

User Error

One of the highest reason of data loss can be attributed to user mistakes or error. In multiple surveys, human error is at 25% of data loss. This could be from accidental deletion or even accidental overwrites. With a proper backup, you can always revert to it to find the data or even go through different versions of files.

Data Corruption

Files can become corrupted due to bugs or even malware without a moments notice. Backup solutions can help safeguard your data from this spontaneous data loss.

Hard Drive Failure

Just like data corruption, your hard drive can fail due to multiple reasons. With no proper backup in place, this can mean important data can be lost indefinitely.

Retention and Archiving

Some businesses need long data retention or historical archiving of files. This is to ensure proper auditing, or a need arises that the data must be pulled out for review. Backup solutions can be customized to solve these requirements.

Does BCDR = Backup?

There are multiple steps in creating a data protection strategy, the first step being to put a backup solution in place and the last step being to have a BCDR plan. This goes without saying, you should not jump in steps when you are implementing a data protection strategy.

BCDR strategy is not a replacement for a backup solution. The key difference between the two is how the recovery is done. Without the initial backup solution, how can you plan for a disaster recovery when the first step of protecting your data for day-to-day activities is not yet in place?

BCDR is reserved only for cases when disasters occur that would cause business operations to halt. An example of this would be from natural disasters such as fires that would cause your servers to become inoperable, and the entire database will need to be recovered.

While preparing for a disaster is important, ensuring that your data is protected from more common and recurring threats should come first. Short term goals should first be implemented to help achieve your long term goals in data protection.

To learn more about Backup solutions, you may send us a message via the form below!

Images are courtesy of Freepik (1, 2, 3, 4) and Vecteezy

Financial Services: Adding Business Continuity to your Bottom Line

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Financial Services: Adding Business Continuity to your Bottom Line

Financial firms have the task of making sure that their clients are making the most of their fiscal decisions.  From services such as accounting, hedge fund management, and stock investments, your clients put their trust in you to handle their funds and ensure confidentiality.  Once that trust is gone, you will most likely lose that client for life.  Therefore, maintaining that trust is important in the financial industry.  So how do you ensure that their data is safe?  Do you have plans just in case your clients are unable to retrieve information or make withdrawals?  How about if their identity was stolen and you were are unable to access their data that would help stop it?

Downtime is one of the causes that hampers the industries performance, and this does not just apply to downtime caused by natural disasters.  The other and more recent causes of downtime from data loss come in the form of cyber attacks and malware like ransomware.  These are the kind of situation that your company should try to avoid at all costs as this can not only ruin the trust from the said client, it could also affect your future prospects.

A False Sense of Security

While you may be taking some precautions, such as securing and backing up your sensitive data, sometimes that’s not enough. There is a common misconception that data is safe if backed up once a day, but this outdated practice is no longer sufficient for several reasons:

  • If you forget to perform the backup or the backup process fails, you’re not protected.
  • If you only back up your files once a day, you’re left vulnerable to the loss of an entire day’s work.
  • If you don’t properly validate your backup files, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when you try to use those files to restore your company’s operations.
  • If you only back up your files on-site, you could lose them too, leaving you with no way to meet client requests.
  • If you only back up your raw data, rather than all your application and server configuration files, it could take several days to restore your practice —because you will also have to rebuild your servers, operating systems, applications, etc.

Below are a few best practices your company should follow to start the most basic of ways you can protect your data:

  • Outsource your company’s IT needs to an expert who has experience in the financial industry.
  • Don’t sacrifice quality to save money when purchasing hardware. It will benefit you (and your bottom line) to have strong technology in the long run.
  • Perform timely hardware and software updates, maintenance and backups.
  • Establish, review and maintain system security of all practice technology.

The Better Way: Business Continuity

Although best practices are good to follow, it won’t give you that extra layer of insurance that you would like to have when handling with a lot of confidential and important data.  This is where a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) solution comes in to help you with your backup and disaster recovery.  It will help you protect your data whether it is on-prem or in the cloud and even help backup data in your SaaS applications.  While still being able to help you restore your data in case of unforeseen incidents.

When a business faces an incident in which their systems are majorly affected, whether it be natural disasters or a man-made, a strong BCDR solution can help you get back online in minutes.

When leveraging hybrid solutions as well, can ensure that your restore time will be quicker as using local storage exclusively can cause issues if the area it was stored was also affected by the disaster.

Going full cloud is also be slow as well due to bandwidth issues that will pop up as you try to bring back all the hundreds of GB back to your system. A hybrid model works to alleviate the vulnerabilities by implementing both processes to fill in the gaps. That’s intelligent business continuity.

To learn more you may contact us at 8893 9515 to learn more about BCDR solution or if you have any questions that you would like to clarify.

Five Data Protection Requirements in Healthcare that Unitrends can Help you Solve

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Five Data Protection Requirements in Healthcare that Unitrends can Help you Solve

When it comes to business continuity, the healthcare industry faces many unique requirements and challenges.  With the need of 24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days availability, and the need to safeguard the content of their electronic health records (EHRs), it can be a hard task to fulfill while still keeping within a reasonable budget.

This is where Unitrends can help.  Below are a few unique requirements that the healthcare industry faces and how the Unitrends solution meets to solve them.

  1. Uptime Requirements

When it comes to recovery time objectives (RTO), most industries have them in hours as they have more time to work with.  This doesn’t follow for the healthcare industry as they need their RTOs in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Unitrends Instant Recovery can failover applications in literally seconds. Unitrends Recovery Assurance delivers automated recovery testing, site and application failover, ransomware detection, and disaster recovery compliance, both locally and in the Unitrends Cloud.

  1. Highly Targeted by Ransomware

Due to the nature of healthcare, data of patients are critical for the business to function.  Ransomware criminals are aware of this and that is why the industry is a prime target.

Unitrends products can do security scans against your production applications – but using your backup data instead. It can spin up your applications in a specific order, isolate them from production, execute security tests, and automate reports and alerts immediately upon detection of ransomware

  1. Highly Regulated

For companies that need to work with the Protected Health Information (PHI) must ensure that all the required physical, network, and process security measures are in place, well documented and strictly followed.  This is required by HIPAA.

Unitrends offers a portfolio of 15 all-in-one enterprise physical appliances that are pre-loaded and pre-tuned with powerful software that not only covers on-premises backup but also long-term retention and disaster recovery in the HIPAA compliant Unitrends Cloud.

  1. Must Control Highly Proprietary Data

Healthcare IT must know where their physical data is located at all times of the lifecycle as well as control who can access it.

Unitrends Recovery Series and Unitrends Backup software can replicate data locally, to a remote site or to the HIPAA-compliant Unitrends Cloud. From any of those locations data can be stored for long term retention and / or used for disaster recovery purposes.

  1. Support Large Numbers of Non-computer Savvy Users

Usually, the general staff of healthcare are considered to be beginners or illiterate when it comes to new IT related technologies that have come out in the recent years.  This makes them very prone to mistakes which in turn can keep their IT counterparts quite busy.

With a common and intuitive user interface across all products, even untrained IT staff can easily find individual files in backups. A few clicks and the entire recovery process, from login to file restoration usually takes less than 5 minutes.

To learn more about Unitrends, you may contact us at 8893-9515 and we would be happy to help you!

AIP Scanner: Automating Data Protection for your Organization

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AIP Scanner: Automating Data Protection for your Organization

Organizations these days have large amounts of unstructured data just being left alone in their on-premises data repositories and SharePoint libraries.  With the amount of data usually amounting to terabytes (or even Petabytes in some cases), it can seem like a daunting task which can take long hours to accomplish.  However, with the help of some tools and apps, this seemingly difficult task may not seem that daunting anymore.

This is where Azure Information Protection (AIP) Scanner comes in.  AIP Scanner can scan your on-premises data repositories against the standard Office 365 sensitive information types and custom types you build with keywords and regular expressions.   Once the data is discovered, the AIP scanner(s) can aggregate the findings and display them in Analytics reports so you can begin visualizing your data risk and see recommendations for setting up protection rules based on the content.

Benefits

Below are some key benefits that one organization who is currently using AIP Scanner have mentioned:

Enhanced functionality:  AIP scanner has the capability to not only scan sensitive data, but also to apply labels and encrypt files. PDF and RMS-encrypted files can be scanned as well, given that the operator is an accredited RMS superuser.

Simplified management processes: AIP scanner has an integrated view with centralized logging for the scanner results which make viewing and managing them easier especially when you are scanning large amount of data.

Consistent scan results across the enterprise: With AIP Scanner, you can reuse Office 365 DLP information types meaning that you don’t have to rebuild policies between your cloud scans and third-party products.

To learn more about AIP scanner, you can visit the original article here or you can contact us at 893-9515 and we would be happy to answer your inquiries!

Ransomware Hits Florida Town, Costs them $500,000 in Ransom

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Ransomware Hits Florida Town, Costs them $500,000 in Ransom

No matter how big or small your organization is, security is always something that should be considered when it comes to securing your business data.  This is especially so if you are mostly handling confidential data such as data from customers.  Unfortunately, a town in Florida learned this lesson the hard way as they were recently hit by a ransomware attack.  As their operations was put to a standstill, they had no choice but to pay the asking price of cyber criminals, 42 bitcoins (equivalent to $500,000).

This wasn’t the only attack that happened in Florida as well, another municipality ended up paying cyber criminals $600,000 when the attack severed their connection to important data.  The mayor of the town even stated that he could not believe that in such a small town they would encounter such attacks.  They aren’t alone however, during the past years many other organizations such as major hospitals were hit by ransomware and were forced to pay to gain access to business-critical data.

“Ransomware is the canary in the coal mine,” said cyber-security expert Kevin Beaumont, who argued that the spate of attacks showed organizations needed to get better at basic IT security.

What can you do to prevent this?

As stated above, one preventive measure is to make sure that your employees are briefed on basic IT security as to make sure they don’t fall to attacks such as phising to prevent criminals from getting into the network.

Another would be to have data protection measures up, you may even start with a simple back up set up.  This is to ensure that during time of attacks or system failures, you will have a starting point to recover instead of trying to get whatever you can from your infected systems.

You may also consider advanced security protection from vendors such as Trend Micro which can help detect and quarantine suspicious files and activities from the Server level or even on your multiple endpoints.

To learn more about these solutions and how we can help you, you may contact us at 893-9515 and we would be happy to find the best solution for you company!

Cloud Backup vs. BCDR: The Difference Between the Two

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Cloud Backup vs. BCDR: The Difference Between the Two

When discussing whether business’ have a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) in place, many would say that they have some in place but really only have Cloud Backup in place.  So, what is the difference between the two?  Cloud backup, simply put, is backing up your data to a remote cloud-based server which is accessible to many different and connected resources.

While BCDR is focused more on ensuring that your business will be able to continue after a disaster, whether it be natural or due to human error.  Business continuity focuses more on the continued activity or how fast your business can go back into operation after a disaster, while disaster recovery refers to the set of policies which are put in place to protect your business’ technology infrastructure.

You can separate backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity by the time it takes to restore and/or recover your data and get back to work.  BCDR plans can help you speed up recovery time from days and weeks to simply just minutes or hours.   Below are three main reasons why businesses should have a proper BCDR plan in place:

To prevent downtime and loss of revenue

Businesses usually can’t afford downtime as it can significantly affect profits, with a BCDR plan, you can minimize the downtime and loss of revenue you would incur.

To prevent data loss

A BCDR plan in place can help you prevent the loss of data to ensure that your business can still operate, a study once found the 87% of businesses that lost access to their data for more than a week would eventually close down a year later.

To protect the business reputation

With how consumers expect most business to accommodate them 24/7, it can damage the business reputation once long periods of downtime is experienced by consumers.  With a BCDR plan in place, you can help prevent these types of reputation losses from happening.

To learn more about BCDR solutions, you can refer to our product page here, or you can contact us directly at 893-9515 and we will be happy to help you!

Keep your Data Safe Anywhere with Microsoft Azure Information Protection

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Keep your Data Safe Anywhere with Microsoft Azure Information Protection

With the convenience of the internet and the evolving application market, company data is moving through different channels at a faster rate than possible before.  This makes it easier for businesses to better serve the clients while also improving their operations.  However, this also means that your data may be out there unprotected and used by people who should not have that data in the first place.

In 2016, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) recorded that about 1,093 US agencies and companies suffered from data breach instances, this is a 40% increase over 2015.  As information is a company’s critical asset, we should take the necessary steps in making sure that it is well protected from breaches.

With how freely we access and share data, the chances of incurring a leak of sensitive data such as intellectual property or customer data is not that farfetched.  So how do we prevent this from happening?  One way is to create a classification of protection levels that are easily identifiable through labels such as Personal, Public, General, Confidential, and Highly Confidential.

This is where Microsoft Azure Information Protection (AIP) can help you.  AIP is a cloud-based solution which provides a continuous classification and protection of your corporate data wherever it may be.  It provides this with its end-to-end protection and control for sensitive data which include data classification and labeling, data protection, data usage monitoring, and responding to malicious data usage activities.

Protect sensitive information anytime, anywhere

With AIP, you will be able to classify and label your corporate data for protection for its whole lifecycle.  Also, since it is a cloud-based solution, it provides you the flexibility to integrate and protect with your Microsoft cloud services and applications such as Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and OneDrive for Business.  Below are a few of the features that you can expect to see with AIP:

  • Simplified and intuitive controls that help you make the right decisions and stay productive. Data classification and protection controls are integrated into Microsoft Office and common applications. One-click options make it easy to classify data.
  • Persistent protection that follows sensitive data to ensure it’s always protected—regardless of where it’s stored or with whom it’s shared.
  • More visibility and control over shared data through tracking of shared data usage with powerful logging and reporting that allows you to monitor and analyze this data. Access to data can be revoked if required.
  • Safer sharing with customers and partners through definitions of who can access data and what they can do with it based on a use rights policy. For example, some users might be able to view and edit certain files but not print or forward them.
  • Deployment and management flexibility to protect data whether it’s stored in the cloud or on-premises. You can choose how encryption keys are managed, including Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) options.

To learn more, you may contact us at 893-9515 and we will be more than happy to help you with your inquiries!

Data Protection: Looking Closer at Cloud Storage

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Data Protection: Looking Closer at Cloud Storage

The way we store data is evolving, from the days of punch cards, magnetic tape, discs, solid state, and flash we have now arrived to having what is called cloud storage.  A research from IDC shows that IT Infrastructure sales into the cloud has finally surpassed traditional IT environments for the first time in the third quarter of 2018.

With Cloud Storage being the new trend in the storage sector, it is no wonder that organizations are hopping on the bandwagon.  Cloud storage boasts that it will ensure business continuity and scalability. However, when done in practice, the transition is nuanced due to reasons such as financial restraints and multi-generational IT infrastructures.

We should also still consider that even though there are newer technologies, some forms of the older technology for storage still retain their use cases depending on the industry.  This is why even though cloud is seeing more usage lately, most companies are still between different storage solutions so that they can determine which data should be moved to the cloud and which can stay on premise, a hybrid cloud approach. 

Moving to the Cloud needs to be well thought-out

Although many companies are currently adopting a hybrid cloud approach, Gartner predicts almost 90% of companies will be on a hybrid-cloud infrastructure by 2020, many are still struggling to find the right balance.  Research from backup solutions vendor, Arcserve, found that 64% of respondents believe that it hasn’t gotten easier to safeguard business critical data compared to 5 years ago. This is despite all the technological advancement we’ve had throughout the years; the problem is still the same for them.  This means that finding the right technology is only the first step, you will also need a proper process and team who will help you with the transition to a cloud-based system while not neglecting the on-site system.  This is key if you want to ensure continuity in the current global environment filled with cyber threats and multi-platform integration.

Therefore, it is advisable that you take your time when attempting to move your data to the cloud.  This should be done with the help of those who can help you deliberate which data would benefit from moving to the cloud and staying on premise.  You will need the help of a provider who will make sure that the solutions that you have are considered while also looking into your best interest when it comes to cost you will incur. 

If you are interested in learning more about Data Protection, you may refer to our data solutions page here, or you can also contact us directly at 893-9515 and we will be happy to help you through your journey!

CT Link Systems, Inc. Sponsors the Upcoming DPCC Summit 2018!

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CT Link Systems, Inc. Sponsors the Upcoming DPCC Summit 2018!

CT Link Systems, Inc. is co-presenting the upcoming Data Privacy & Cloud Computing (DPCC) Summit 2018 this coming November 8, 2018.  CT Link has decided to sponsor this event as one of its initiatives to help give back to the IT community as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

DPCC Summit 2018 is the venue in which the foremost experts on cloud computing in the Philippines come together to share their knowledge and experience to help advocate its benefits to businesses around the country.  Learn as well how they kept compliant to data privacy laws while using cloud computing in their organizations.

To learn more on how to join this exclusive IT Summit, you may email registration@dpcc2018.com with your inquiry or you may visit DPCC Summit 2018’s official site to register.

About CT Link

CT Link Systems, Inc. is a premier IT Solutions provider based in the Philippines. We are dedicated to delivering innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients. Our goal is to be your “Link to Cloud Technology” for businesses looking to improve their digital capabilities. Our solutions include multilevel security, hybrid cloud, and workspace solutions. Established in 1998, CT Link has built a reputation as a reliable partner for companies seeking a competitive advantage. We work with leading international vendors to offer the latest and most cost-effective solutions. Our engineers are highly skilled and trained, providing expert planning, implementation, and support services. At CT Link Systems, Inc., we understand the importance of technology and the role it plays in driving business success. That’s why we heavily invest in product training and certification for our engineers, ensuring they have the knowledge and expertise to deliver the best possible outcomes. Whether you need help with security, cloud migration, or other IT challenges, we are confident that we can be your trusted technology partner.