Cloud-to-cloud backup – why you should backup Microsoft 365 data

What is the use case for cloud-to-cloud backup? Despite the misconception to the contrary, Microsoft 365 is not a backup tool. Instead, it should be thought of as providing availability for users to conveniently access documents – but not a secure backup archive.

Microsoft’s own user agreement confirms that it actually provides extremely limited data protection by retaining deleted items in site collection bins. These are very similar to the recycle bin on Windows Desktops. However, files are only retained for a maximum of 93 days. The retention of files in Microsoft Teams can be even more limited, with Teams channels only protected for 21 days.

The implications for IT

Restoring entire users’ folders or mailboxes can be a tedious, manual process. If the data is mission-critical, this will inevitably mean that widespread disruption can be caused.

Because of this, Microsoft itself recommends that you its customers use third-party backup for data hosted in Office 365.

What is the solution?

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup provides comprehensive, cost-effective, scalable protection for your organisation’s 365 data.

Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup offers fast backups, highly granular restore capabilities, and unmatched ease of use. It automatically backs up all data from email, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Groups, and Teams data to the Barracuda Cloud.

The service is provided as a complete Software as a Service (SaaS) offering so no hardware or software to deploy or manage, and when time is of the essence, restoring what you need takes just a few clicks.

Find out how to go from signing up to running your first backup within 5 minutes in this short video!

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

 

What is Zero Trust, and how to build your roadmap

Zero trust is an architectural approach where inherent trust in the network is removed. This means network is assumed hostile and each request is verified based on an access policy. It is a multi-layered approach to fending off modern cybersecurity threats. The National Cyber Security Centre provides a comprehensive Introduction to Zero Trust.

Now that remote work is the rule rather than the exception, it’s time to protect your assets and resources using modern Zero Trust protocols and solutions.

Implementing your Zero Trust strategy

Implementing a Zero Trust Network Access strategy is not overly complex or difficult. The key is to follow best practices and avoid the pitfalls that can leave digital resources exposed to threat actors.

Get the info you need to make it happen. Watch this on-demand webinar from Forrester to see what the experts from Forrester Research are saying about Zero Trust. The webinar summarises, unpacks, and presents the key findings in the report.

Click the image below to watch the webinar (you will be asked to enter your email address).

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand. They can demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

How to secure web applications against malicious files

Modern web applications have evolved into a primary form of data communication as well as a platform where end users can easily collaborate, upload documents, images, or other files. However, this has led to applications being able to accept file uploads with any extension or type, giving attackers the opportunity to upload malicious files into applications that exploit both the organisation and its clients. Therefore, filtering uploads by validating for file types or extensions is no longer an effective way of defending against such attacks.

In the recent past, in-house sandboxing techniques have been used in company networks to detect malware in files. However, deploying an appliance for sandboxing and analysing local network files is not scalable, and it also adds severe latency and administrative overhead, which results in badly implemented security.

Additionally, enhanced inspection techniques that send notifications and adequate logging are required to defend against today’s file injections. By immediately notifying the administrator when an attack occurs, they have a better chance of combating threats.

Why anti-virus scanning isn’t enough

Running a business is becoming more dynamic, yet more complex. Unfortunately, this also applies to the business of malware and ransomware. Popular types of malware are being used to target websites, and are rarely detected by traditional anti-virus services.

The origin of these infections is typically through simple actions like file uploads in web applications. Today’s threats spread at a high velocity, making it difficult to detect a threat, isolate the signature, add the signature to databases, and make it publicly and continually available in a very short time. By the time the database update is available, the threat has already compromised a network’s systems and has successfully covered up its tracks.

While these signature-based legacy systems are still important as a first line of defense for prefiltering network traffic, organisations still need an additional security layer to protect against targeted malware.

Read this whitepaper from Barracuda to find out how to secure web applications against malicious file injections.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Bad bots, broken APIs, and supply chain attacks put business data at risk

Barracuda Networks recently surveyed a group of IT professionals worldwide to find out their challenges, opinions, and priorities associated to application security and compiled the results into an insightful market report.

Read “The state of application security in 2021” to delve into top application security vulnerabilities, data breaches, and the most important product capabilities needed to defend against multi-vector application attacks.

Read the report to find out:

  • The recent data breaches, top application security vulnerabilities, and how businesses are dealing with them.
  • The most important product capabilities needed to defend against multi-vector application attacks.
  • The security solutions decision makers plan to deploy in the next 12 months to protect against top threats.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

School cyber attacks in the UK – why?

School cyber attacks

School cyber attacks are rising in the UK, and schools are no exception. The National Cyber Security Centre recently modified its guidelines to reflect this growing threat.

In this three-part series with our partners Barracuda, Complete IT Systems look at why schools are targeted, how schools are exposed, and practical steps for safeguarding them.

Part 1: School cyber attacks – why are they targeted?

Schools may seem like less obvious targets for cyber criminals. Pupils are not likely to be carrying credit cards or phones, and exam results are unlikely to attract as big payouts as bank account details for instance.

The reality is that schools are a common target of hackers for two reasons. Firstly, they are often soft targets with inadequate security provisions in place. There can also be some potentially lucrative rewards for a successful attack.

What are the rewards?

Schools actually have a lot of data that can be valuable in the wrong hands. Childrens’ identity data is a valuable commodity in criminal circles. It is used by fraudsters to open bank accounts for money laundering. It can also be used to open new credit lines.

And the best part for cyber criminals? Children are much less likely to realise wrongdoing than adults. Some studies have found that twice as many children are subject to identity theft than adults for this reason.

State schools’ IT systems also contain an abundance of data attractive to criminals. This includes names, DOB, phone numbers, email addresses and health data. Private schools also hold financial and insurance information. On top of this, schools also hold payroll information for teachers.

With 8.9 million pupils attending almost 33,000 schools in the UK, the potential is clear.

Ransomware

Although state schools are not flush with funds, around 10% of the schools in the UK are private. That means there are well over 3,000 schools that could be susceptible to paying ransoms on pupils’ coursework, financial data and health information such as COVID-19 testing.

In part two of our blog, we will look at how private schools can be exposed.

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Unleash your network’s full potential with secure SD-WAN

UK organisations are moving workloads to the cloud. And suddenly, backhauling traffic through a central datacentre or uplink slows you down, and robs you of some of your cloud migration’s benefits.

Watch this video and see exactly how you can unleash your network’s full potential with secure SD-WAN—and get the industry’s most advanced security. Discover Barracuda Cloud Generation Firewall – purpose-built for the era of dispersed networks, SaaS applications, and public cloud deployments.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

 

Live Demo Session: Barracuda CloudGen Firewall | Recording

In these times when remote working and the safety of office networks are no longer the default for many companies and organisations, a rethink of perimeter security is required.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a family of hardware, virtual, and cloud-based appliances that protect and enhance dispersed network infrastructures. The solution also combines highly resilient VPN technology with intelligent traffic management and WAN optimisation capabilities.

Complete IT Systems and Barracuda hosted an exclusive live demo session on Thursday 15 April 2021. Watch the recording to learn about how the solution helps to:

  • Protect your data, users, and workloads wherever they reside
  • Mitigate cyber-risks with Barracuda’s multi-layered security approach
  • Stop zero-hour attacks with Barracuda Advanced Threat Protection
  • Stay ahead of new threats with Barracuda’s global threat intelligence network
  • Simplify your security deployment in the cloud
  • Connect multiple locations and clouds with our built-in SD-WAN
Watch our 50 minute live demo session here:
Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Live Webinar: Top tips for using and backing up your Office 365 applications

Are Office 365 applications like Teams, Outlook and SharePoint rapidly turning into a core aspect of your users toolkits and working days? A significant part, if not all, of their productivity, critical communication and data are stored and created in this environment. Losing this data is not an option, and as Office 365 is not a back-up solution, we will help you with what you need to consider when making sure business data is safe.

Don’t miss this new webinar surrounding your productivity cloud and protecting your O365 data. Join experts from Microsoft and Barracuda for all of the latest details and best practices for using and backing up your O365 applications.

When?

Wednesday 15 July, 10am BST.

Agenda:

  • 10:00 – 10:05 Opening
    Speaker: Chris Hill, RVP Public Cloud, Barracuda Networks
  • 10:05 – 10:50 Your Microsoft 365 Productivity Cloud
    Speaker: Mike Martin, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft
  • 10:50 – 11:00 Co-Development of a Fit for Purpose Backup
    Speaker: Mike Martin
  • 11:00 – 11:30 Your Barracuda Cloud to Cloud Backup & Closing
    Speaker: Charles Smith, Consulting Solutions Engineer, Data Protection, Barracuda
    Networks

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

Enable remote work while securing data during the COVID-19 pandemic

During this crisis, many office-based employees have become remote workers, and especially so now that confinement restrictions are in place across the UK.

As well as bringing up challenges for users such as how to juggle children, meals, and work and home life, remote working brings new security risks and productivity challenges for IT departments.

Over the coming days and weeks the team at Complete IT Systems will be publishing a series of guidance and tips to help you through this situation. In our first article, we focus on how Barracuda can help secure your data and infrastructure while ensuring reliable connections to maintain employee productivity.

How to secure your remote users in 3 easy steps:

  1. Reliable remote connectivity – Provide remote users with VPN access from any device with better performance than traditional IPsec-based VPNs.
  2. Zero touch provisioning – Centrally manage large deployments with minimal IT resources. Users can download and access apps without elevated privileges on their device.
  3. Support – The team at Complete IT Systems are committed to helping you in this challenging time by being a full partner in your business security. Find out about our support options for Barracuda and other solutions here.

Whitepaper: Advanced Secure Access for Remote and Mobile Workers

Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls incorporate advanced client-to-site VPN capabilities to ensure remote employees secure access to the network. Read more about how in this whitepaper.

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Is it really your boss? Here’s the top Spear Phishing attack methods

We all read the news – impersonation-based cyber attacks are increasingly more common, sophisticated and targeted.

But what are the most common, and successful approaches that cyber criminals use to attack business like yours in the UK every day? Here are some of the most common impersonation attempts you should be on particular alert for, and make your users aware of.

Is it really your boss?

It’s never the best career move to ignore your boss, so who wouldn’t respond to a request from them? Many times, attackers don’t use complex tools or technology to try and trick you or your employee to wire money, send personal information, give up account credentials, etc. They simply research both you and your employees/manager by checking out social media accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn, or your company’s “About” section. From there, they craft the perfect email (or strings of emails) that legitimately appear to be sent from a trusted source. These messages typically do not contain malicious links or attachments, making them very difficult to detect with traditional email security solutions.

Impersonating popular business apps you use every day

Almost every business uses some sort of web-based application to help manage day-to-day workloads and tasks. Attackers are well aware of this and target trusted web services like Gmail or DocuSign as a way to lure unsuspecting victims. These attacks often try to get you to give up account credentials or click on malicious links. For example, you may receive an email informing you that you have unread messages, to reset your password, or to review or sign a document. From there, you’re taken to a fake website portal and accidentally give up your login information. These crooks will then use this to commit fraud or to launch a more targeted attack within your organisation.

Impersonating your Office 365 account

Most businesses use Microsoft’s popular cloud productivity service; however, familiarity can sometimes be a bad thing. There’s an inherent trust from users when they see an email directly from Office 365, and attackers are capitalising on this trust. They craft emails that ask you to log into a seemingly “valid” web portal. From there, they can gain access to your account and proceed to send malicious emails to your co-workers. What do these particular emails usually contain? You guessed it—a message asking for more sensitive company information or money. Even though Microsoft Office 365 is still a relatively new tool, attackers recognise that it houses a rather large and growing user base, so they plan on taking full advantage.

Secure your business

While we’ve all seen the headlines of data breaches such as British Airlines and Marriott, don’t be lulled into thinking that small and medium sized business aren’t also at risk.

Email is the leading source of modern cyber-threats which makes selecting the right enterprise email security is critical to your business success – this is vital even if you’re using Microsoft Office 365 as we discuss here.

Don’t miss what Forrester Research is saying about enterprise email security – Barracuda has been named a leader in the recent Forrester Wave Enterprise Email Security report.

 

 

Request your copy of the complimentary report now to read more!

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.