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Identity & Workforce Security
Data Protection and Backup Services

Data Protection and Backup Services

Backups only create confidence when recovery has been tested. Digisecuritas reviews how critical data is protected, stored, retained, accessed, and restored, then provides a clear plan to strengthen resilience.

Data Resilience
Data resilience review
Current position
Critical data mapped
Partially complete
Backup coverage
Needs validation
Recovery testing
Inconsistent
Privileged access
Review required
Retention controls
Defined
Priority actions
Validate critical backups
Separate administrative access
Test recovery procedures
Review retention requirements

A backup is useful only when the business can recover from it

Backup jobs may complete successfully while recovery remains uncertain. Data may be missing, inaccessible, outdated, exposed to the same compromise, or impossible to restore within operational deadlines.

An independent review tests the assumptions behind the backup strategy.

Backup success is a system status. Recovery confidence is a business outcome.

Incomplete coverage
Critical systems or data may sit outside the backup scope.
Untested recovery
Successful backup jobs do not confirm that restoration will work.
Shared compromise
Backup environments may use the same identities or access paths as production.
Unclear ownership
Recovery responsibilities may be divided across teams and vendors.
Retention gaps
Retention periods may not reflect legal, contractual, or business needs.
Recovery delays
Technical restoration may not match business recovery priorities.

What data protection and backup services cover

Data discovery
Identify critical information, systems, repositories, and business dependencies.
Backup architecture
Review backup platforms, storage locations, isolation, replication, and dependencies.
Access security
Assess administrative access, service accounts, authentication, and separation of duties.
Retention and governance
Review retention schedules, legal obligations, deletion, and policy ownership.
Recovery assurance
Validate restoration procedures, dependencies, recovery times, and evidence.
Ransomware resilience
Assess immutability, isolation, monitoring, clean recovery, and compromise scenarios.

Your data protection environment

Data resilience depends on how these layers work together, not on backup technology alone.

01
Business information
Customer dataFinancial recordsEmployee informationOperational dataIntellectual propertyRegulated information
02
Systems and repositories
ApplicationsDatabasesFile systemsCloud platformsEndpointsCollaboration services
03
Protection controls
Backup schedulesEncryptionAccess restrictionsRetention policiesReplicationImmutability
04
Recovery capability
Restoration proceduresRecovery environmentsPriority sequencingDependency mappingValidation testingBusiness acceptance
05
Governance and oversight
OwnershipReportingExceptionsVendor accountabilityRecovery metricsExecutive visibility

Our data protection review

→
01
Identify critical data
Confirm which information and systems are essential to operations.
Output
Critical data inventory
→
02
Review protection
Assess backup scope, architecture, storage, access, and retention.
Output
Protection coverage review
→
03
Validate recovery
Review procedures, test evidence, dependencies, and restoration capability.
Output
Recovery assurance findings
→
04
Prioritise exposure
Link weaknesses to business impact, ownership, and recovery requirements.
Output
Prioritised risk register
05
Build the roadmap
Define remediation, testing, governance, and improvement actions.
Output
Data resilience roadmap

Recovery begins with business priorities

Technical recovery order and business recovery order are rarely identical. Digisecuritas helps organisations define which services, systems, and data must return first.

Request a Recovery Readiness Review
Critical services
Identify the operations that cannot remain unavailable.
Data dependencies
Map the information each critical service requires.
Recovery time
Define how quickly each service must return.
Recovery point
Confirm how much data loss the business can tolerate.
System dependencies
Identify applications, identities, networks, and suppliers required for recovery.
Business validation
Define who confirms that restored services are safe and usable.

The backup trust model

Production environment
Business applications
Users and administrators
Databases
Endpoints
Cloud services
Key question
What data must be protected?
Protected backup environment
Separate administration
Restricted access
Encrypted backups
Immutable copies
Monitoring and alerts
Key question
Can production compromise reach the backups?
Recovery environment
Clean infrastructure
Validated identities
Recovery procedures
Prioritised restoration
Business acceptance
Key question
Can the organisation recover safely?

A resilient backup model separates production, protection, and recovery responsibilities.

Review Your Backup Architecture

What we assess

We review how data is protected, accessed, retained, restored, and governed.

Backup coverage and architecture
Critical systems
Databases
Cloud workloads
Microsoft 365 data
Endpoints
File services
Applications
SaaS platforms
Security and access
Administrative accounts
Service identities
Multi-factor authentication
Privileged access
Separation of duties
Network isolation
Encryption
Vendor access
Recovery readiness
Recovery procedures
Restoration testing
Recovery environments
Dependency mapping
Recovery time objectives
Recovery point objectives
Clean recovery validation
Business acceptance
Governance and retention
Data ownership
Retention schedules
Legal holds
Deletion requirements
Exception management
Vendor responsibilities
Executive reporting
Testing cadence

Recovery planning starts with clear recovery objectives

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Recovery Time Objective defines the maximum acceptable period a critical business service can remain unavailable before operational impact becomes unacceptable.

Review focus
Business service priorities
Recovery sequencing
Application dependencies
Technology and vendor readiness
Business validation process
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Recovery Point Objective defines the maximum amount of data loss the organisation is prepared to accept before recovery begins.

Review focus
Backup frequency
Replication strategy
Data criticality
Storage architecture
Recovery methodology

Recovery objectives should reflect business priorities, operational dependencies, and risk tolerance rather than default technology settings.

Example backup finding

Finding
Backup administration depends on production identities
High Priority
Observation

Backup administrators use the same identity platform and access path as the production environment.

Why it matters

A compromised privileged identity could affect both operational systems and the backups needed for recovery.

Recommended action

Separate backup administration, apply stronger authentication, restrict access paths, and maintain controlled emergency credentials.

Decision owner

Chief Information Officer

Validation evidence
Privileged role reviewBackup access policyAuthentication configurationEmergency access procedureRecovery test evidence

Each finding should explain the exposure, business impact, owner, action, and closure evidence.

Recovery testing that proves more than file restoration

Level 1
Backup verification
Confirm backup jobs completed and files are readable.
Evidence
Job statusIntegrity checksStorage availability
Level 2
Technical restoration
Restore selected systems, applications, or data.
Evidence
Restore logsRecovery timeConfiguration validation
Level 3
Service recovery
Restore the components required to operate a business service.
Evidence
Application dependenciesIdentity accessNetwork connectivityData integrity
Level 4
Business recovery exercise
Confirm that users can operate the restored service safely.
Evidence
Business acceptanceOperational checksOutstanding risksExecutive approval
Plan a Recovery Validation Exercise

What you receive

Document
Executive resilience summary
A concise view of material backup and recovery risks.
Document
Critical data inventory
A record of essential data, systems, owners, and dependencies.
Document
Backup architecture review
An assessment of coverage, storage, isolation, security, and resilience.
Document
Recovery readiness assessment
A review of procedures, testing, evidence, and recovery capability.
Document
Retention and governance review
An analysis of retention rules, ownership, exceptions, and legal requirements.
Document
Privileged access review
A view of administrative identities, service accounts, and backup access.
Document
Prioritised findings register
Findings with impact, ownership, actions, and validation requirements.
Document
Data resilience roadmap
A sequenced improvement plan based on risk, effort, and business priority.

Your first 90 days of improvement

Days 1 to 30
Establish the baseline
Identify critical data, review coverage, and confirm recovery requirements.
Output
Current resilience position
Days 31 to 60
Address priority exposure
Strengthen access, isolation, retention, and backup coverage.
Output
Priority remediation plan
Days 61 to 90
Validate recovery
Run restoration tests, assign ownership, and establish reporting.
Output
Sustainable recovery assurance model

The sequence will vary by environment size, data criticality, existing architecture, and risk.

When organisations need a data protection review

After a ransomware incident
Review whether backup controls and recovery processes remain trustworthy.
Before a cloud migration
Confirm how critical data will be protected and restored in the target environment.
Following rapid growth
Review expanding systems, repositories, suppliers, and backup dependencies.
Before a compliance audit
Validate retention, access control, evidence, and recovery governance.
After an acquisition
Assess inherited data, backup platforms, ownership, and integration risks.
During platform replacement
Protect data and recovery capability while systems are migrated.
When recovery tests fail
Identify technical, procedural, and ownership gaps.
When visibility is unclear
Create one view of data, protection, recovery, and governance.

How Digisecuritas works with your team

Digisecuritas works alongside your technology, security, compliance, and business teams. We provide an independent view of protection coverage, recovery readiness, governance, and business risk.

Your teams
Infrastructure
Cloud
Applications
Data owners
Business continuity
Compliance
Shared resilience programme
Scope
Evidence
Priorities
Testing
Decisions
Validation
Digisecuritas
Independent assessment
Architecture review
Recovery analysis
Risk interpretation
Governance guidance
Follow-up validation

Why organisations choose Digisecuritas

01
Independent assurance
Recommendations are based on evidence and recovery requirements.
02
Business-led recovery
Recovery priorities are linked to critical services and operational needs.
03
Cross-environment review
We assess cloud, on-premises, SaaS, endpoints, applications, and data together.
04
Practical remediation
Recommendations include ownership, sequencing, and validation steps.
05
Executive visibility
Leadership receives a clear view of exposure, readiness, and required decisions.
06
Ongoing validation
The review can support regular recovery testing and resilience improvement.

Industries we support

Financial services
Transaction data, regulatory retention, recovery priorities, and operational resilience.
Healthcare
Patient information, clinical continuity, access control, and recovery assurance.
Technology and SaaS
Customer data, cloud platforms, tenant resilience, and service restoration.
Manufacturing
Production data, operational technology, supplier dependencies, and continuity.
Government
Critical records, public services, retention, and recovery governance.
Education
Student information, research data, shared platforms, and decentralised systems.
Professional services
Client information, document systems, confidentiality, and recovery assurance.
Growing enterprises
Backup standardisation, cloud protection, ownership, and recovery testing.

Frequently asked questions

Protect the data your business cannot afford to lose.

Strengthen backup security, recovery readiness, retention, and resilience through one independent data protection review.

Request a Data Protection AssessmentSpeak with a Data Resilience Advisor
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