Google Workspace Backup and Security Guide 2024

This Google Workspace Backup and Security Guide covers 9 burning-hot cloud security topics. These articles will give you helpful information about cybersecurity. Each one is a step-by-step guide to solving common problems with Google Workspace (G Suite) backup and security. You’ll learn the best practices for Google Workspace security.

Enjoy your reading and invest in cyber resilience!

1. Google Workspace Best Practices When Employees Leave

It is important to consider Google Workspace’s best practices when employees leave or are terminated. What are these best practices for Google Workspace public cloud data?

There are a few items that need to be addressed when assuming access from an employee who has left the organization.

• Remove sign-in cookies and mobile device access and change passwords/disable password recovery
• Create a backup of the existing employee Google Workspace data (mail, drive, calendar, contacts, etc.)
• Transfer Google Workspace data to another Google Workspace account:
  • Transfer data to another Google Workspace account
  • Add an SMTP alias on the new account after the account is deleted
• Delete the original Google Workspace account

2. SpinOne Provides Additional Benefits for Google Workspace Organizations

SpinBackup is not only a powerful Google Workspace backup and migration utility. SpinBackup API CASB also allows organizations to have powerful Data Loss Protection and Data Leak Protection, enabling organizations to:

• Backup Google
• Control High-Risk Third-party applications and add-ons
• Control leaking Google Workspace data
• Control sensitive data
• Enable powerful Google Workspace Ransomware Protection
• Detect Insider Threats
• Help with secure employee exit
• Leverage Machine Learning to protect Google Workspace data

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3. Utilizing Machine Learning for Cyber Threat Intelligence

A lot of useful third-party applications can be found in the Google Workspace marketplace. They can often add significant functionality and real business value to a corporate Google Workspace environment.

Organizations can extend the default tools, utilities, functionality, features, and many other aspects by installing legitimate third-party applications providing those resources. However, the Google marketplace can potentially contain Google Workspace security risks to organization data.

SpinBackup’s solution for maintaining control over third-party applications makes use of powerful machine learning, allowing organizations to effectively mitigate the risks presented by third-party app installation. SpinBackup provides a 24/7 monitoring solution that allows runs a daily automated scan of installed third-party applications that have been integrated into Google Workspace. The underlying technology behind SpinBackup’s ability to effectively scan and remediate risky third-party apps lies in powerful machine learning algorithms and AI.

Machine learning algorithms provide SpinBackup with the ability to:

1. Provide a real-time assessment of the third-party app
2. “Profile” the third-party app and discover what its “intent” is by determining connections, data it has access to, employees it has access to, data flows to and from the third-party app
3. Discover the types of connected devices and any discovered anomalies

SpinBackup’s implementation of such Google Workspace security modules as High-Risk Apps Control, Ransomware Protection, Data Leak Protection, and Sensitive Data Control makes use of intelligent machine learning that allows both effective and efficient mitigation of critical cybersecurity threats.

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4. How Machine Learning Can Advance Cybersecurity Landscape

Businesses today are gathering huge amounts of data. Data is at the heart of just about any business-critical system you can think of. Machine learning today is able for the most part accurately determine and pick up on anomalies in traffic patterns, connections, user activity, and many other aspects of the network. Powerful machine learning algorithms are able to filter through traffic patterns and learn what the normal fingerprint of network activity looks like and then make decisions based on machine learning algorithms

SpinBackup’s data protection, data leak protection, and cybersecurity solutions provide a great example of the power of machine learning presented in a powerful API-driven Cloud Access Security Broker. Its abilities to identify cybersecurity threats such as malicious third-party apps, ransomware, and sensitive data are powered by its machine learning algorithms.

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5. Google Security Center vs SpinBackup with Cost Analysis

Let’s consider a cost example of deploying Google Security Center vs. SpinBackup. To deploy Google Security Center, organizations must be running the Google Workspace Enterprise subscription of Google Workspace. If your organization had 100 users, what would the features and functionality cost between the two?

Google Security Center

• 100 users
• Google Workspace subscription must be Enterprise
• This equates to $25 per user per month – 100 x 25 = $2,500 per month

SpinBackup

To get more

• 100 users
• You can simply choose the Basic Edition – $5 per user per month = 100 x $5 = $500 per month
• SpinBackup license = $ 5 per user per month x 100 users = $500 per month
• If you choose the Google Workspace Basic subscription with SpinBackup protection = $500+$500= $1,000 total
• This is $1,500 cheaper per month for cybersecurity and backup

SpinBackup offers a much more robust solution as it provides both cybersecurity and automated backups to protect business-critical data. When it comes to Google Security Center and backing up your data, you are on your own. The security features found in SpinBackup are much more in tune with real-world threats, such as ransomware, and empower Google Workspace administrators to proactively eradicate these ominous threats.

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6. Google Vault Archiving vs SpinBackup’s DLP

When comparing SpinbBackup DLP with Google Vault, there simply isn’t a comparison between the products. While Google Vault has a specific use case in archiving data and making it available for eDiscovery and other needs, it is simply not a backup solution for Google Workspace environments. Quite simply, SpinBackup provides a much more powerful and robust feature set when it comes to backing up Google Workspace data that qualifies it as a true data protection solution. This is a designation that can’t be applied to Google Vault.

Consider 7 Tangible Benefits that SpinBackup DLP Brings to the Table

1. Built on top of powerful cloud architecture that is not dependent upon Google’s infrastructure. While Google Vault relies on its own infrastructure, SpinBackup is a standalone solution that provides resiliency outside of Google’s infrastructure.
2. Automated Daily Backups – SpinBackup provides true backups. The backups created are automated and provide multiple restore points to go back to in the event of data loss. The powerful “Restore in Time Machine” functionality is like a DVR for organizations looking to roll files back or restore them to a specific point in time.
   • This provides true protection from total data loss as well as events such as ransomware infection that may render files totally corrupted.
3. Risky third-party apps control – The Google Workspace marketplace provides access to myriads of third-party applications that can greatly increase functionality in the Google Workspace environment. However, even though Google screens the apps, there are apps that may have malicious intent or that have access to data in the Google Workspace environment they should not have access to. SpinBackup is able to control which applications are installed and what data they have access to.
4. Google Workspace Ransomware Protection – Ransomware is probably the single most concerning data security issue to business-critical data today. As mentioned, Google Vault does not protect organizations from this extremely malicious security threat. SpinBackup Ransomware Protection proactively monitors and automatically remediates access to Google Workspace data that is infected with ransomware. Additionally, it can perform automatic restores of data that has been affected by ransomware.
5. Insider Threat Protection – By monitoring end-user usage patterns, file access, and other metrics, SpinBackup is able to determine insider threats that may exist with users who may be downloading data they should not, sharing it with unauthorized outsiders, or whose account may have been compromised from attackers just to name a few.
6. Sensitive Data Control – SpinBackup protects organizations from data leakage that contains sensitive data such as credit card numbers.
7. Powerful proactive alerting – SpinBackup empowers Google Workspace administrators to be proactive by receiving alerts when certain important events are detected such as ransomware and other malicious activity.

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7. Cybersecurity Risks for CEOs and Management Teams

When a cybersecurity breach happens, there can tend to be “finger-pointing” that may take place.

At the end of the day, customers, authorities, and stakeholders will hold CEOs, management teams, and other leadership liable for sensitive data being leaked out or otherwise compromised – period. Even if gross negligence is not involved with the cybersecurity breach, CEOs and management teams must realize this tremendous responsibility and the accountability it brings with how cybersecurity measures are implemented and enforced.

7 Key Insights on Cyber Risk Management

There are several key insights and best practices that CEOs and management teams today must be aware of to effectively mitigate cybersecurity threats.

1. Security is ultimately your responsibility.
2. Cloud is not a security solution.
3. Form a cybersecurity team.
4. Perform cybersecurity risk assessments and audits at regular intervals.
5. Implement security policy via technology and via the “human factor”.
6. Understand internal risks can be as dangerous as external risks.
7. Continue to evolve your security policy.

By giving due attention to these and other key insights CEOs and management teams can be much better prepared to tackle the growing challenge of cybersecurity.

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8. Google Workspace for Education. Top Benefits for Google Workspace Administrators

Google Workspace for Education is revolutionizing the way educational institutions are communicating, collaborate, store, and access data. By building educational infrastructure on top of the Google Google Workspace cloud, schools are able to empower faculty, staff, and students with the tools and communication necessary in today’s world of education. Google Workspace inherently provides native tools for data loss and prevention as well as cybersecurity.

However, by augmenting Google Workspace for Education with tools such as SpinBackup, schools are able to greatly extend the native Google Workspace functionality. SpinBackup provides the automated daily backups and cybersecurity features that round out the Google Workspace offering allowing educational institutions the ability to seamlessly migrate to the Google Workspace cloud with much greater confidence in their security and data protection.

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9. Avoid Google File Synchronization Threats with SpinBackup

Ransomware presents a very real and present danger to both home and enterprise users who make use of file synchronization. Simply storing critical files in the Google public cloud does not prevent them from being encrypted, nor is it able to “magically” decrypt the files once they are synchronized to the Google public cloud.

This is a common misconception that causes individuals and enterprises alike to feel a false sense of security with public cloud storage. Why is ransomware encrypted files synchronized to the Google public cloud via sync utilities such as Google Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream?

Google file synchronization utilities such as Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream are not immune to synchronizing ransomware-infected files to Google public cloud file storage. Good versions of files stored in the Google public cloud are overwritten with the ransomware-infected versions.

Without good backups, data could be lost forever. SpinBackup is a solution that provides a powerful all-in-one approach including both backups and security measures to prevent ransomware from destroying data. The automated daily backups protect critical data while features like Ransomware Protection proactively remediate ransomware infections. It does this by automatically restoring good versions of files, revoking access to the offending synchronization utility, and alerting administrators.

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