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Encrypting Backup

Encrypting backup data protects sensitive information if a copy is ever lost or compromised, but the encryption keys must be stored offsite and managed carefully to ensure successful restoration.

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About this video

Encrypting backup data is an essential layer of protection, particularly when backups contain sensitive or regulated information. Most modern backup solutions support encryption natively, writing data in an encrypted format before it ever reaches its storage destination. The general best practice is to encrypt all backups where feasible, and to treat encryption as a mandatory requirement for any data classified as sensitive. The most critical operational consideration with backup encryption is key management. An encrypted backup that cannot be decrypted is effectively unusable, which means losing or misplacing an encryption key can be just as catastrophic as losing the backup itself. When backup media is transported or stored offsite—a common practice for disaster recovery—the corresponding encryption keys must also be stored offsite, separately and securely. Organizations need a documented, tested process for retrieving those keys during a recovery scenario to ensure that encrypted backups can actually be restored when they are needed most.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Encrypting Backups

Key terms

Encryption
The process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using an algorithm and key to prevent unauthorized access.
Backup Encryption Key
A cryptographic key used to encrypt and decrypt backup data, which must be stored securely offsite to ensure successful data restoration.
Disaster Recovery
DR
The process and procedures for recovering IT systems and data following a disruptive event.

Topics

Backup Encryption Key Management Offsite Storage Data Protection Cryptography Disaster Recovery

Transcript

Encrypting the Backup

Another thing that we're going to want to consider is encrypting the backup. If it's sensitive data, then we're probably going to want to encrypt it, just in case that backup copy ever gets out.

Most of the backup software that we use will have the ability to encrypt the data before it gets stored on its media. So what we're going to want to do is probably encrypt much of our data, if not all of our data. If it's sensitive data, then we will definitely want to encrypt it.

Store the Key Offsite Too

But the one thing that I will warn you about is that if we're encrypting — let's say we're putting it on some sort of removable media and we're encrypting that, and we bring it offsite, and then there's a fire in the data center and now we have to do a restore. This is encrypted data. It requires a key. So we need to make sure we store that key as well. That's going to be an important part of this, is storing those keys offsite as well. So make sure you are storing those keys properly and can do a restore of that encrypted backup.

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