Fortify Your Future: Invest in Resiliency and Protect Your Data

With today’s accountholders expecting you to have the necessary precautions in place to minimize downtime and protect their data, data resiliency and recovery solutions are critical to your short- and long-term success.

Power outages, internet service provider outages, severe weather, and cyberattacks are just some of the many threats that cause financial institutions across the country to declare the need for disaster recovery services.

In fact, the financial services industry continues to be a target for cyberattacks, with system intrusion, miscellaneous errors, and social engineering representing 78% of breaches.

How confident are you in the availability of your data?

According to Sheltered Harbor, to be resilient, you need at least three things² :

1. Complete confidence your data will never be lost.
2. An assured way to continue operations promptly after an event.
3. A plan by which all stakeholders have the same confidence in your ability to recover from a crisis to retain their trust.

Cloud-based backup solutions

Do you have a cloud-based backup solution that can provide layers of protection for financial data during an event? With an enterprise-level recovery solution, you can empower your accountholders with:

• Data protection: Encryption of data in transit and at rest.
• Scalability: Solutions that easily scale to accommodate growing amounts of data per your retention policy.
• Daily reporting and backup monitoring: Ensures your backups are performed regularly.
• Ease of access: Access data backed up in the cloud anywhere with an internet connection (especially beneficial for financial institutions with multiple locations or remote employees).
• Technical support: In the event of a data loss, support is crucial to restore data and minimize downtime and disruption to financial services.
• Air gapped and/or immutable backups: An environment where data is disconnected from all internet networks with compliance to the Ransomware Self-Assessment Tool.

When it comes to backups and recovering your data, most people prepare for server recovery. For years, we prepared for what would happen if file servers, app servers, and domain controllers were lost. With most solutions having a cloud-hosted version of their software, it’s raised new awareness for financial institutions to consider applying these same principles to data stored in a third-party, cloud-based platform.

Understanding the shared responsibility model and how it applies to where your data is stored is critical. As the data owner, you have a responsibility to ensure data is available and protected.

Protect your Microsoft 365 data

As part of a comprehensive backup and recovery plan, your inboxes, conversations, and Microsoft 365 documents need protection, too.

Our clients often ask: Why do I need to protect Microsoft 365 email, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams data? First and foremost, with Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, there’s a division of responsibility.³

Let’s dig deeper into why backing up Microsoft 365 is fundamental:

• Accidental deletion: It happens and can be significant … quickly and efficiently recover lost data to continue your operations.
• Simplify retention policies: A Microsoft 365 backup solution can provide retention visibility to match the requirements of your policies.
• Internal security threats: Malicious actors and disgruntled employees are threats you can’t ignore.
• External cyber threats: Routine backups can ensure an uninfected copy of data is available in a malware or ransomware event.
• Legal and compliance requirements: Robust backups with search capabilities can quickly assist with legal requirements and other compliance and human resource scenarios.

Ultimately, it’s not just about backups; it’s about restoring data when it matters most. Consider Microsoft 365 backups as an essential investment in your business continuity strategy.

Invest in business continuity to compete effectively 

Digital banking has shifted how financial institutions operate. With increasing reliance on data and digital processes, the need for robust backup and recovery solutions has never been more critical. Investing in comprehensive backup and recovery solutions – particularly those leveraging the power of cloud-based solutions – is more than just a matter of safeguarding your data … it’s about ensuring business continuity, maintaining accountholder trust, and staying ahead in a competitive market.

In the end, the question is not whether you can invest in comprehensive backup and recovery solutions, but rather, can you afford not to?

Learn more about safeguarding your data with disaster recovery solutions from Jack Henry™.

¹2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon Business, accessed July 5, 2024.

²Carlos Recalde. Cyber Resilience in Financial Services, Sheltered Habor, accessed July 5, 2024.

³Shared Responsibility in the Cloud, Microsoft Azure, accessed July 5, 2024.