Your cloud apps are not your backup
Microsoft and Google keep their services running. Protecting your content from deletion, ransomware or a bad employee is mostly up to you. Microsoft says so directly in its Services Agreement: we recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data.
Recycle bins and version history are helpful, but they sit inside the same account an attacker or a mistake can reach. They aren't independent backups.
What actually saves you
| What goes wrong | Recycle bin | Sync | Independent backup | Offline or immutable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Someone deletes a file today | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deletion found months later | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Ransomware encrypts synced files | Maybe | Maybe | Yes | Yes |
| Stolen admin account deletes everything | No | No | Maybe | Yes |
| Fire, flood or theft at the office | Cloud data only | Cloud data only | If offsite | If offsite |
Not a backup, even though it feels like one
- ///Sync
OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox copy deletions and encrypted files too.
- ///RAID or a second disk in the server
It protects against a failed drive, not against deletion or ransomware.
- ///A USB drive left plugged in
If the computer can reach it, so can ransomware.
- ///Version history alone
It's useful, but it sits inside the same account an attacker can take over.
- ///Email attachments and sending it to yourself
That isn't a system, and it won't scale to a recovery.
Ransomware crews go after backups first. CISA warns that many variants try to find and delete or encrypt backups they can reach. If your backup is one stolen admin login away from your data, it may not survive the attack it exists for.
What's in the full PDF
- ///Side-by-side comparison of real products with published prices, across five categories
- ///Starting points by company type, with rough annual costs
- ///A fillable recovery worksheet for RPO and RTO
- ///The quarterly restore test, and ten questions to ask any vendor