Ensuring Data Resilience: Why Backup and Recovery Solutions Must be a Priority for State and Local Governments

A recent report from CloudSEK found that the number of attacks targeting the government sector increased by 95 percent year over year in the second half of 2022. The same report found that the US comes in as the second most targeted country in the government sector, with India in the top spot. 

Meanwhile, SolarWinds recently published its Cybersecurity Survey 2023, and foreign governments are now the number one source of security threats, at 60 percent, followed closely by careless or untrained insiders at 58 percent.

Those are some of the drivers behind the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) initiatives that can help ramp up your government agency’s data resilience. You’ll find a complete list of these services here, including help with cyber incident response, management and coordination, cyber resilience reviews, and cybersecurity exercises.

If you’re in IT for a government entity, another valuable CISA publication titled “Essential Element: Your Data” includes many resources to help you increase your data resilience. These include:

Know Your Data

This first “essential action” from CISA recommends that you inventory critical or sensitive information so you understand the data you are protecting, where it resides, and who has access. 

Know Your Network

The following CISA recommendation is that you learn what is happening on your network so you can better manage network and perimeter components, host and device components, data at rest and in transit, and user behavior and activities. 

Deploy DNS Protection

CISA follows with domain name system (DNS) protection, which blocks malicious sites and filters out unwanted content. That adds a layer of protection against malware, phishing, and other viruses by filtering out connections to unauthorized websites, suspicious domain names, and known malicious domain names associated with malware and phishing.

Add Malware Protections

Make sure you have the defenses to stop malware before it gets into your systems, where it can spread quickly and wreak havoc by making your data inaccessible. Because malware comes in many forms, it’s crucial to have robust antivirus software, firewalls, email filters, and other defensive tools and technologies.

All of the CISA “essential actions” listed in the publication feature links to high-value resources, such as the Global Cybersecurity GCA Toolkit, which offers free tools, practical tips, and resources and guides for improving your entity’s cybersecurity readiness and response.

Backup Regularly and Build In Key Redundancies

The last two “essential actions” in the CISA publication are about backing up your data—and ensuring those backups are always protected. CISA writes, “Employ a backup solution that automatically and continuously backs up your business-critical data and system configurations. Regular backups protect against ransomware and malware attacks. Use onsite and remote backup methods to protect vulnerable information.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

CISA continues, “Test your backup strategy before you need to use it,” and then explains your options for backup strategies. Their recommendations can essentially be boiled down to the 3-2-1-1 backup strategy, an approach we refer to frequently in these posts—because it works—that is based on keeping redundant copies of your backups in various places and formats to ensure they are always available. One of those copies should be stored in an immutable form. But for many IT teams, finding the bandwidth to handle everything that comes with the ever-evolving intricacies of data protection, from cybersecurity to disaster recovery, isn’t easy. 

Unified Data Protection: Data Resilience Delivered

That’s where Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) changes everything by simplifying data protection. Arcserve UDP delivers all-in-one data and ransomware protection to neutralize ransomware attacks, restore data, and perform effective disaster recovery. 

Your data is safeguarded by Sophos Intercept X Advanced cybersecurity. The software uniquely combines deep-learning server protection, immutable storage—including support of Amazon AWS S3 Object Lock—and scalable onsite and offsite business continuity, giving you a multilayered approach that delivers complete IT and data resiliency across your virtual, physical, and cloud infrastructures. 

Arcserve UDP doesn’t require extensive training or added professional services, and it can be deployed in minutes. Most importantly, it reduces your downtime from days to minutes, validates your RTOs and RPOs and service-level agreements (SLAs), automates testing, and delivers granular reporting.

Leverage Expert Guidance to Deliver Data Resilience

Arcserve technology partners spend their days (and nights) ensuring their customers’ data is resilient, and their systems are secure. That includes staying on top of the latest trends, evolving threats, and new data protection and cybersecurity solutions.

Talking to an Arcserve technology partner can help your public agency align with CISA’s guidelines and more. Find one here. To learn more about Arcserve UDP, request a demo or check out our 30-day free trial offer.