Reasons to Backup Office 365
Third-party services are important for backing up Microsoft 365 because they offer a more reliable and secure way to store and protect your data. These services can provide additional features like automated backups, versioning, and the ability to restore data quickly in the event of an emergency. Additionally, third-party services can provide more control over your data, giving you the ability to set policies and control access to your data.
Below are eight reasons why backing up Microsoft 365 is so important.
Reasons to Backup Office 365
1. User Error Or Malicious Intention
Human error is one of the leading reasons for data loss. Employees in your organization might delete a file on the OneDrive due to different reasons:
- Accidental Deletion: If they get a notification for running out of space, they might clear the OneDrive files by removing old or less important documents to create space. They also might delete old emails that with attachments. This kind of data will be lost forever after 90 days unless it is backed up.
- Removing Duplicate Files: Despite the collaborative feature of OneDrive, employees create duplicate files for various reasons. They might accidentally delete the file’s original version while trying to eliminate duplicates.
- Malicious Intentions: Disgruntled employees may sabotage or delete critical files. When the damage is discovered, it might be too late to revert or recover it. A Microsoft 365 backup solution has multiple iterations of the same file, making restoring it easier.
2. Phishing and Ransomware Attacks
Phishing is one of the most common methods employed by ransomware attackers. Even if most employees recognize malicious emails, a single click by an unsuspecting user is all they need to infect your organization. After gaining access, the attackers steal and encrypt your data. If you fail to pay by the specified deadline, they can wipe out the entire data. Microsoft 365 backups are critical in recovering encrypted data.
3. Malware and Virus Entry Via OneDrive Sync Client
The Microsoft OneDrive sync client can cause all data in OneDrive to be immediately encrypted or corrupted by ransomware or viruses.
4. Limitations of eDiscovery
The Microsoft 365 eDiscovery tool is generally used for legal and litigation purposes. Even though you can create hold and search for data in the mailboxes and Sites, the eDiscovery tool is meant only for archiving and retrieving business data. Additionally, it cannot be used for holding, searching, or retrieving OneDrive data.
5. Outage and Shutdown
SaaS outages are more common than you think. According to recent reports, Azure suffered a massive outage for two days in October 2020, during which users could not access their data. While it is unlikely that Microsoft is going away anytime soon, having a backup is insurance and guarantees your data can be retrieved.
6. Outage and Shutdown
SaaS outages are more common than you think. According to recent reports Azure suffered a massive outage for two days in October 2020 during which people were unable to access their data. Imagine being unable to access any data during the downtime?
So, unless you are prepared with a Microsoft 365 backup solution, you cannot always expect your data to be available all the time just because it is in the cloud.
7. Third-Party Application Illicit Consent Attack
An illicit consent grant attack in Office 365 is when a person is tricked into giving extensive rights to the data they can access or the configuration of their Office 365 applications to a third-party application external to their organization.
Most of the time, the user receives a phishing email prompting them to follow links that seem legitimate in the context of Office 365 and through which they end up granting, without realizing it, rights to the malicious third-party application.
Once the rights are granted, the malicious application has access to the user’s security perimeter without needing its username and password. This means that this type of attack does not require the theft of the user’s login credentials, and implementing a multi-factor authentication does not protect against it.
8. Lost or Stolen Devices
Many companies have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy. If the device gets stolen, it could lead to phishing attacks or business data loss.