Cyber Resilience - Comprehensive Protection of IT Systems and Data

Emails are an essential part of daily workflow and communication for every organization. They contain large amounts of critical information such as contracts, invoices, employee data, and purchase orders. It is very important to keep critical information and data permanently accessible. Losing important data in IT infrastructure can cause business interruptions and even threaten a company's reputation. If lost data cannot be recovered, the scale of the loss can put a company's existence at risk.

There are many reasons for the loss of email data, including malicious activities within the organization, innocent mistakes or emails being deleted by employees, cyber attacks, natural disasters or other uncontrollable causes such as fires in company buildings, all of which can cause failures in software or hardware systems. In addition, there is a risk caused by external factors such as service interruptions in cloud service providers due to technical problems, which can disrupt business operations. To overcome these challenges and reduce risks as much as possible, companies are increasingly relying on the concept of Cyber Resilience.

Cyber Resilience is becoming increasingly important in an environment of growing digitalization. Companies use the term Cyber Resilience not only to refer to measures and concepts aimed at protection against cyber attacks, but also to express Business Continuity Management. In Business Continuity Management, strategies, activities, and processes are defined to prevent or minimize the disruption of business capacity or failure during an emergency situation such as a cyber attack that exceeds initial protective measures (e.g., firewalls), and to ensure that business activities continue as quickly as possible.

Disaster Recovery as Part of Business Continuity Management

Disaster Recovery is an important part of Business Continuity Management, which focuses on ensuring the security and recovery of critical data, as well as all IT networks and systems. Backups and email archiving provide valuable support here.

Backups store a company's data (for example, data from used communication programs or ERP software) at a specific time. If data is lost, subsets of data or entire systems or servers can be restored from backups. However, backup units only reflect the data that existed at the time the backup was created. Changes made after a backup is created are not recorded. This means that backups need to be performed regularly, taking costs and benefits into account, to ensure that the backed-up data is as up-to-date as possible.

Email Archiving for Permanent Access to Emails, Even in the Case of a Legal Claim

In addition to regular backups, it is recommended to use a professional email archiving solution. Considering that emails are still the most important communication tool and contain many documents critical to business operations, it is important to ensure continuous access to emails even in the event of data loss.

An independent email archiving solution can help protect critical emails and make it easier to recover them, ensuring that all email data is securely stored in an email archive and the rest remains available for work processes such as search and recovery. Even after a destructive event that renders an email server unusable and requires restoration from backups, organizations can access their email inventory without losing valuable time. In addition, an email archiving solution can help simplify backup and recovery processes that are appropriate for the email server. For example, keeping the volume of data stored on an email server low means that less time and storage capacity is required for backup operations - which means you can restore the email server from backups faster after a destructive event.

Both email archiving and backup solutions are essential for business continuity, but they do not exclude each other. As a rule, a company's backup strategy serves to protect data (ideally including the email archive itself) in the medium and short term, and can restore this information as needed.

An email archiving solution, when included in a backup strategy, ensures that emails are stored in their original form for many years, can be easily found, and remain permanently accessible. Organizations can increase Cyber Resilience across all IT assets by using both solutions together.

Email Archiving for Compliance and Data Protection

One of the main tasks of email archiving is to help companies comply with legal requirements. There is a lot of business-critical information in IT infrastructure, and some of it may be found only in emails, so securely storing and protecting emails is of vital importance.

It is important to note that every industry sector and country has its own compliance standards and regulations. Sectors such as healthcare, finance, and public services are subject to strict regulations and have stringent compliance requirements, often requiring data to be stored in its original form for many years. However, many businesses are not aware of the importance of email archiving and may not have an email management strategy in place.

Failure to comply with regulations and requirements that affect email communications can result in serious consequences, including fines and other penalties. In some cases, it may even lead to legal action under civil law as data owners assert their rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. This can be prevented by using a professional email archiving solution that is checked and approved for compliance with data rights under the GDPR.

Use With Existing Collaboration Tools

Email archiving solutions ensure that all emails, including file attachments, are fully stored in a tamper-proof manner and always remain available.

Many organizations that prefer cloud-based integrated digital collaboration tools and productivity packages such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 may not need additional solutions. However, the local data management tool of Google Workspace, known as Google Apps Vault, may not be able to meet the compliance requirements of a professional email archiving system based on the needs of professional email management. Therefore, using an independent third-party email archiving solution alongside Google Workspace is very important to ensure that emails are secure and can be safely restored when needed, thus making full use of the prominent features of the collaborative tool.

In Conclusion

Implementing an email archiving solution has significant strategic importance. A professional email archive contributes significantly to a company's Cyber Resilience by supporting disaster recovery and being an important component of Business Continuity Management. In addition, email archiving supports compliance with legal requirements related to storing business-critical information and should be part of any information management and corporate strategy.

Source: How Email Archiving Enhances Your Cyber Resilience (mailstore.com)