Key Guidelines for Office 365 Backups in Europe: Compliance and Practices
Microsoft 365, previously known as Office 365, is a set of widely used cloud-based services for organizations and individual users, with the number of Microsoft 365 clients in Europe constantly growing. Microsoft offers several advantages with its cloud services, including reliability, availability, effective collaboration, etc. However, despite the high reliability of Microsoft cloud services, Microsoft 365 data in the cloud should be backed up to prevent data loss. There are specific aspects in terms of Office 365 data protection for European countries, and they are covered in this blog post.
Why Office 365 Backups Are Critical for European Organizations
To avoid losing Office 365 data, it is highly recommended that organizations back up their data. Data stored in the cloud can be lost due to accidental deletion by users, intended deletion initiated by attackers, ransomware attacks, etc. In addition to that, there are Europe-specific reasons to back up Office 365 data.
The importance of data management across Europe
Data management for European organizations requires compliance with regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation. It is crucial to ensure proper data management across multiple jurisdictions. Microsoft 365 services are governed by the Shared Responsibility model, which means that Microsoft is responsible for the operation of its data centers. At the same time, customers are responsible for data protection and data backups.
GDPR and data protection
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a strict regulation on information privacy that includes requirements on how organizations must store, handle, and secure the personal data of users. Microsoft 365 has efficient built-in security features, but organizations are responsible for long-term data protection, including data backup and retention.
Cybersecurity threats and data breaches
Unfortunately, cybersecurity threats are common worldwide, including in Europe. These threats include ransomware attacks or phishing and insider threats. Data breaches and data loss lead to serious financial and reputational damage. The fines for violating data protection regulations, whether legal or regulatory requirements, are high.
Organizations that store data in the cloud when users work in Office 365 and exchange large amounts of data can be an attractive target for attackers. If cybercriminals corrupt or delete user data, for example, by initiating a ransomware attack, the only way to restore the data is to use a valid backup.
Cross-border data transfer regulations
When personal data of European users leaves the European Economic Area (EEA), it is also highly regulated. This measure ensures that the personal data of European citizens is protected during cross-border data transfers. Microsoft 365 uses a global cloud infrastructure that presumes using servers in datacenters across the globe in different geographical regions.
According to GDPR, it is restricted to transfer personal data to countries outside the EEA if this process doesn’t provide enough data protection measures. Since Office 365 data can be stored in various datacenters, organizations using Microsoft 365 must ensure that the data transfers comply with GDPR.
Data privacy and compliance
The high pressure on European organizations to comply with strict data privacy laws, including GDPR, requires them to implement reliable data protection strategies. Violating the regulations causes heavy fines and penalties – it is better to take care of data privacy and compliance by configuring Microsoft 365 data backups.
Minimizing stored data and retention settings is another principle of GDPR. Organizations must collect only the necessary data but nothing more. There are built-in retention policies in Office 365, but using special data protection solutions can make data protection measures more effective and granular. As a result, organizations can configure backup policies to delete unnecessary and outdated data and preserve only the critical data.
According to GDPR, individuals have the right to request an organization to delete the individual’s data. Organizations using Office 365 must have the ability to track, manage, and delete data if the end-user requests it, in a compliant manner. When organizations have backups, there is no concern about deleting business critical data when managing user’s data.
Automation in data management
Organizations need to configure automated Microsoft 365 backups to ensure that data is always protected. Setting up backup schedules and retention settings to run backup jobs automatically and deleting old backup data that is not needed is key to meeting regulatory requirements.
Automation tools and tools based on artificial intelligence can be a prospective direction of Microsoft 365 in the future. AI-based tools can automatically monitor non-compliant activities. Detecting unusual data access patterns that are not typical for normal operations can indicate a data breach or compliance violation. This detection allows administrators to take measures, protect data, and resolve the issue in time.
How to Ensure GDPR-Compliant Office 365 Backups
To ensure that Office 365 backups comply with GDPR, organizations should implement a set of measures, including data encryption, retention policies, and backup accessibility.
Data encryption
Data encryption is one of the primary measures to secure personal data during data transit and at rest (on destination storage). GDPR declares that organizations must implement measures to protect data from breaches and unauthorized access. Backup encryption helps organizations to ensure that if a third party accesses or intercepts the data illegally, this encrypted data is unreadable without the decryption key. Strong AES-256 encryption reduces the risks of unauthorized access and data leaks, which helps organizations meet the GDPR data protection standards. You can refer to the GDPR Article 32 to check this statement. Encrypting Office 365 backups is what organizations need to meet the GDPR requirements.
Retention policies and data minimization
The principle of minimizing user data stored by organizations is one of the most important GDPR principles. Organizations can collect and store (retain) only the necessary data for a limited period. This means that organizations that perform Office 365 backups must ensure that backups do not include unnecessary or outdated data. This is a concern if the data is stored longer than the legally required retention period.
Organizations should configure retention policies to avoid the risks of keeping the personal data of users longer than needed. This measure reduces the risk of non-compliance with GDPR. Professional backup solutions allow administrators to configure scheduling and retention settings with high granularity and wide customization options. By applying these retention settings, organizations can ensure that personal data is deleted when it is no longer needed. This is what the GDPR Article 5 (5.1.e) requires.
Data subject rights and backup accessibility
Individual users have the right to access, rectify, and delete their personal data. These rights are referred to as Data Subject Rights. When it comes to data backup, organizations must ensure that they can process requests to access, check, and delete user data even if this data is stored in backups.
In the context of Office 365 backups, this means the following:
- It should be possible to retrieve data if needed to satisfy data access requests made by users. An Office 365 backup solution must be able to restore data quickly and make it possible to access the restored data in a usable format.
- A backup solution should offer the feature to flexibly remove specific data from the entire backup without restoring the entire set of data. If a solution has the capability to selectively delete specific data from backups, the risk of non-compliance penalties is significantly reduced.
Office 365 Backup and Recovery Best Practices in Europe
Office 365 backup best practices in Europe include focusing on data protection measures and compliance with regulation requirements, including GDPR. This approach includes implementing an advanced disaster recovery strategy.
Choosing the right backup solution
Choose a data protection solution that supports Microsoft 365 backup and recovery, taking into account the European data protection regulation requirements. Note the following key factors:
- GDPR compliance. A backup solution must be compatible with data protection regulations in Europe. In other words, it should be possible to configure a backup solution for Microsoft 365 data protection in a way that meets the regulation requirements. Ensure that you can configure storing backups on servers located geographically in Europe.
- Protecting Microsoft 365 services. Ensure that the data protection solution supports all needed Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, etc. All critical data must be protected with the ability to recover it.
- Security and encryption. The backup solution must support data encryption in transit (during transfer over the network) and at rest (when storing data on backup storage). It must also support strong encryption algorithms, such as AES-256. Consider a backup solution that supports role-based access control to avoid unauthorized access to Microsoft 365 backups.
- Granular recovery. Choose a solution that supports granular recovery of Microsoft 365 data. Granular recovery is a feature that allows you to recover specific objects, such as selected emails, OneDrive data of particular users (files and folders), SharePoint sites, lists, files, etc. When using granular recovery, you can recover only the needed data without the need to recover the entire data set (recover the needed files instead of recovering the entire OneDrive account, for example).
- Automation tools. Consider using a Microsoft 365 backup solution that supports automated backup, backup verification and disaster recovery testing. Automating data protection jobs allows you to ensure that data is backed up on a regular basis and that you don’t have data protection gaps. Backup automation makes backup management simpler and reduces the risk of human error.
Backup frequency and retention
Configure backup frequency and retention settings to meet GDPR requirements and other regulations. At the same time, you should consider the organization’s production needs.
- Regular backups. Perform Microsoft 365 backup jobs regularly to ensure that data is always backed up when needed. Configure automatic backup jobs for this purpose based on accepted RPO (Recovery Point Objective) values. Depending on the production needs, backups can be run daily or even hourly (for data that is frequently changed or updated).
- Scheduling. This parameter defines how often a backup job is performed. Configure automatic Microsoft 365 scheduling, this can include full and incremental backups for a higher level of reliability in terms of data protection.
- Retention. Backup retention scheduling options define how long backups are stored. Configure backup retention to ensure that the retention policy meets the GDPR requirements. Remember the principle of data minimization, which means that personal data should not be retained for longer than necessary. When configuring retention settings, remember that you should have enough backup data to ensure the operational continuity of the organization. A retention period for legal or financial organizations may be longer than for organizations working in other industries.
- Versions to recovery. Backup scheduling and retention settings should be configured to allow recovery of different versions of protected objects written at different points in time. For example, ransomware can destroy the latest versions of files, and this corrupted data may be included in the latest backups (recovery points). Using older recovery points makes data recovery possible.
Disaster recovery and business continuity
Create a detailed disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan to minimize downtime if a disaster strikes (a system failure, cyberattack, etc.). A disaster recovery plan must be well-structured to ensure that an organization can continue its operations without losing data or with minimal data loss and service interruptions.
- Disaster recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan includes detailed information, explaining each step of data recovery from backups. It describes the roles of each employee in the data recovery process, estimated restoration time and other aspects. With a high-quality disaster recovery plan, organizations can meet the tightest RTOs and recover data quickly, which minimizes service disruptions.
- Business continuity plan. A business continuity plan is usually used together with a disaster recovery plan to ensure that the business functions of an organization can continue during and after a disaster. Reliable backups can help users access the information required to perform the necessary tasks.
- Backup and recovery testing. Testing backups reduces the probability that data in the backups is not consistent or corrupted and helps to ensure that backups are functional. Data recovery testing increases the probability to restore data and workloads without issues when a disaster strikes. Testing allows organizations to ensure that a disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan work as expected.
- Redundant locations for backups. According to the 3-2-1 backup rule, it is recommended that you store backups and backup copies in different locations. This approach improves the disaster recovery strategy significantly. However, organizations working with data of users who are residents of the European Union must meet the GDPR requirements and store data on servers located geographically in the European Union. For this reason, be attentive when selecting cloud backup storage, such as AWS or Azure, and select datacenters located in European regions for public cloud storage.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication for Microsoft 365 backup
NAKIVO Backup & Replications supports Microsoft 365 backup. The NAKIVO solution supports backup of Microsoft Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and Teams.
The following features can help you meet the regulation requirements in Europe:
- Backup encryption at the source side, in transit, and at rest
- Backup job automation
- Backup verification
- Flexible scheduling and retention settings
- Granular recovery of files and objects
- Backup copy and backup to the cloud with the ability to choose a region to store Microsoft 365 backups in Europe
- Immutable backups
The Future of Office 365 Backups in Europe
Technologies continue to evolve and this means that there can be new challenges in Office 365 backup for European users in the future.
New data privacy regulations
Data privacy concerns continue to grow and there is a high probability that the development of new enhanced regulation standards in addition to GDPR can be implemented in Europe. These regulations, in turn, would impact Microsoft 365 backup for organizations working with European users. The data protection requirements may become stricter, and companies will need to adapt their backup strategies. Some European countries may implement additional data protection requirements in addition to the generally used requirements across the entire European Union.
New backup technologies
Data protection technologies are also becoming more sophisticated and offer enhanced capabilities. Artificial intelligence can be used to detect threats earlier, improve data integrity checks and detect unusual patterns used by ransomware before corrupting data. Ransomware detection and prevention mechanisms could be improved.
Conclusion
To implement an effective strategy for Office 365 backup in Europe, organizations must understand the European regulations and data protection standards, such as GDPR. Take into account the regulation requirements when choosing a backup location, backup frequency and retention settings. Choose a data protection solution that supports Microsoft 365 backup and can be configured to meet the European data protection requirements.
