Ques 1. Discuss the issue of securing backups.

There have been several

incidents lately in which backup media containing personal customer
information were lost or stolen. How should backup media be secured? What
about off-site storage of backups?

Sol. Data backups is very essential for an organisation. The organization

runs fluently if the data is secure so the customer always trust the
organisation. To build that trust organisation make several security
measures to protect the data and to do daily backup. On the other side ,
organisation faces some issues of securing the backups. Data backup adds a
layer of data security

Following are some issues of securing backups:

1. Storage Requirements: The very first issue is to store the data. It is

necessary to keep the data in a storage medium but if the data is too large
then it becomes difficult to store the data as it affects the Disaster Recovery
Plan and the business Continuity Plan also. Hence, data storage medium
should be sound enough so that it can contain huge amount of data. The
cost of data storage is also increasing day by day as this can be the another
issue faced by the organisation.

2. Another big problem is to secure the data from the outside world or from
the employees whose intention is to degrade the company’s reputation. An
unauthorized outsider or the other employee can obtain login credentials
Into the backup system and can steals the customer information.

3. Any occurrence of natural disaster can create so many problems for the
organisation. Fire, floods and other natural disasters can destroy the data in
one time. So natural disasters are also the problem for the organisation to
secure daily backup data.

How should backup media be secured ?

Backup Media can be secured with the help of various techniques . For an
organization the policies for data security is a main concern and is
fundamental element of an enterprise security strategy.

To achieve the goals which is to secure the backup data the corporation
should build a practice around five main fundamental areas:
1. Assigning Accountability, responsibility and authority: Make
the storage security as high priority of information security policy. The
team which is securing the rest of infrastructure of an organisation
should take part or integrate with the other teams who are dealing
with the storage. Integrating storage and backup measures will help
the organisation to build a defence in depth protection.

2. Assess Risk : The next step regarding security concern is to risk

assessment which deals with the analysis of risk of the entire backup
process. It includes to execute some procedures or analysis such as
Cost Beneficial Analysis on backup data encryption. Identification of
Sensitive is very crucial as the database are sufficiently sensitive so it
is the another priority to save the data.

3. Develop a data protection process: The data protection

multilayered security approach should be there for making a sound
data protection level. The layers includes authorization,
authentication, encryption and auditing.

The data in tape drive can survive so long . So, it is good practice for
an organisation to save the data in tapes . But a company cannot
depend on the single copy of the data in the tape drive. Any other
physical damage and environment factors can destroy the data. So it
is a best practice to copy backup tapes and then send copy to off-site.

Removable media should be tracked by bar codes and reports should

be made so as to get the details of the current location of the device.
The tapes which are no longer in use must be destroyed or recycled so
that the data of an organisation from the outer world.

4. Communicate the process : This process is only to ensure that the

sensitive data is properly protected and handled. So it is important
that the people who are responsible to protect the information are
trained or not .

5. Execute and test the process : It is important to test the process of

securing the data or to perform data protection. Due to the change in
the organisation there should also be some changes in the information
security practices . Testing also includes the backup and recovery. The
testing always help to ensure that the process run fluently in the
absence of the experienced people so if the person becomes
unavailable then it does not affect the organisation.
There are some other techniques or methods by which you can protect your
data. Some of them are given below :

 Data backup systems should be included in the Disaster Recovery and

Incident Response plan.
 Assign the back up software access right to the authorised person.
 Store the data in an offsite location.
 Data should be saved in the fireproof sites.
 The encryption of data backups should be there so that it can be
difficult to read for the intermediator and can deal with the destination
person.

Off-site storage of backups: The main criteria to send the critical data out
of the main location is to maintain a data and to make a disaster recovery
plan. Data can be transported offsite using the magnetic tapes or can be
sent electronically via remote backup service known as e-vaulting. The
basic criteria for sending the data to the offsite is to load the latest data into
the servers and to save the suitable data that is not stored on-site. Many
organization save their data by own or some take the third party services.
Offsite backups will protect the organization data from the catastrophic
events such as fire, floods , earthquakes and so on. So despite of storing
data in more than one locations it is a good practice to store the data some
other physical locations.
You can secure the data using the automatically backup software like
CrashPlan, Carbonite Black Blaze or so on.
So, the offsite storage of backup data is also essential for an organization so
that it could work fluently even in the worse conditions like natural disasters
and some other situations.

Ques 2 : Do some research on automated backup hardware. Write a short

report detailing some of the technology that is available.
Sol: The Autonomous Management Framework (AMF) is a framework which
delivers real and immediate value to the business by solving the Information
Technology needs. AMF helps the organisation as it reduces the time and
cost of managing the network infrastructure.

It is a embedded technology that delivers real and immediate value to the

business.

AMF delivers following things :

 Management of network from any device in the network.
 Management of the network using Graphical management.
 Private or public deployment of cloud with AMF cloud.
 Automation of network that simplifies and automates the tasks in the
network.
 Intelligence network that reacts to change in the network
automatically.
 Automatically backup, restore and recover the devices in the network
with the help of advance features.

With the help of robust features there is always lower network operating
expenses by reducing the complexities and the enhanced methods to
maintain the network. The device built by the Allied Telesis helps the
organisation to continue its work without any problem as the framework
helps to backup the data automatically and identify the new device and
provides the security to all the devices. There is no manual work to do as all
the task done by the autonomous device.

So, the AMF master switch is the main thing through which all the network
works fine and accurately. The master switch control the entire process for
your network. There is no extra services or servers required to the setup
and configuration. In this network each network device is enabled to do the
backup automatically with no further user integration required. It contains
the complete backup for not just the configuration but also for the firmware
and the scripts also. If a new device is integrated in the network then it
automatically incorporated in the packet scheme with no further user
interference required and the restoration is done automatically. The master
switch is so sensitive that it knows about the switch replacement and the
configuration too. It provides the most seamless device backup and store
solution available in the market today. The AMF is available on the Switch
Blade Switches and X Series Switches .
There are other devices in which the data is backed up automatically .
Following the example of device :

 Clickfree C6 : This is the another data backup portable device for

the home users. The software that runs in this device runs by itself
and make the daily backups .The advantage of daily backup with this
device is that the files can be recovered easily in case of drive crash or
any virus infections.