Protecting growing volumes of data starts with knowing where sensitive information lives, applying consistent controls wherever it is stored or used, and proving that critical systems can be restored. More cloud services, collaboration tools, development environments and third parties make each step harder; a backup that cannot survive an attack or restore on time is not a reliable safety net.
Why is data protection getting harder?
The problem is not simply that organizations have more data. Information is spread across databases, cloud storage, email, chat, documents, software development and external services. Some of it is structured and easy to inventory; much of it is unstructured and less visible. Meanwhile, threats and technology dependencies change, and security teams must protect data without making legitimate work impossible.
A Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) release in March 2026 reports findings from an online survey of 210 IT and security professionals conducted in November 2025 and commissioned by Thales. In that survey, 56% said they had only partial visibility into where their data was stored, while 68% said less than 80% of their unstructured data was protected. These figures describe survey respondents, not all organizations or all enterprise data. CSA’s survey release also describes unstructured data such as documents, email, chats and image files as a visibility and governance challenge.
The same survey reported that approximately 33% of respondents’ enterprise data was unstructured and 21% semi-structured; 29% said unstructured data accounted for more than half of their annual data growth. These are reported survey estimates, not a universal data-growth rate.
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Data is also appearing in places that are not production systems. Perforce’s 2026 State of Data Compliance and Security report, based on responses from more than 500 enterprise leaders, found that 57% reported increasing volumes of sensitive data in non-production environments. Respondents cited faster release cycles (31%) and increased use of data for decision-making (30%) as drivers. This vendor-published survey describes its respondents; it does not measure worldwide data growth. Perforce’s report discusses masking and synthetic data among approaches respondents use, as well as barriers such as data quality and the effort required to apply controls.
Threats and dependencies change together
ENISA’s 2026 Threat Landscape analyzes incidents and events observed in the EU from 1 January through 31 December 2025. It identifies ransomware as the most short-term impactful incident type and warns that cyber dependencies expand the attack surface. Its findings describe the EU landscape, not a global ranking. ENISA’s threat-landscape page provides the agency’s annual assessment.
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In the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, surveyed organizations named rapidly evolving threats and emerging technologies (61%), third-party and supply-chain vulnerabilities (46%), and skills shortages (45%) as leading challenges to stronger cyber resilience. Legacy infrastructure was another challenge. These are survey responses, not a universal ranking of causes. The report’s discussion of trends reshaping cybersecurity provides the context for those findings.
How do I know where sensitive data is stored?
Build an inventory before choosing a protection tool. Include production and non-production systems, cloud services, collaboration platforms, endpoints, backups and data held by suppliers. Record what each dataset contains, who owns it, who can access it, where it resides, how it moves, and what retention or regulatory requirements apply.
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- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop. Reformatting may be required for Mac
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- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
- Set scope and ownership. Identify business units, systems and service providers that create, store or process sensitive data. Assign an accountable owner to each important data set or system.
- Discover repositories and flows. Use existing system inventories, cloud and identity administration records, database catalogs, collaboration-platform administration tools, and data-discovery capabilities where available. Trace transfers between systems, including exports, test copies and supplier integrations.
- Classify by sensitivity and use. Define practical categories—such as public, internal, confidential and regulated—and document the handling rules for each. Classification is only useful when it informs access, sharing, retention and protection settings.
- Check access and exposure. Review identities, service accounts, public links, broad permissions and stale accounts. Monitor where sensitive data is copied or shared, and investigate repositories with unknown owners or unclear retention.
- Repeat on a schedule and after change. Refresh discovery when systems, teams, vendors or workflows change. A one-time inventory can become inaccurate as new services and data paths appear.
For a data-discovery or classification platform, assess coverage across structured and unstructured sources, visibility across cloud and collaboration environments, classification accuracy, access monitoring, integration effort and recurring operating cost. For non-production data, examine whether the organization can mask sensitive fields or use synthetic data without breaking testing or analytics. Survey findings identify the problem; they do not demonstrate that any particular product solves it.
How should organizations protect data consistently at scale?
Apply safeguards according to sensitivity and business use, then verify that they operate across every relevant environment. Common controls include least-privilege access, strong identity protections, encryption in transit and at rest, secure sharing defaults, logging and retention rules. Use classification to determine where stronger access restrictions, monitoring or handling requirements are needed rather than relying on a single blanket policy.
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- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
- Reduce unnecessary copies. Limit sensitive data in development, testing and analytics environments. Where realistic data is needed, use masking or synthetic data and restrict who can access the resulting datasets.
- Control identities and sharing. Remove access that is no longer needed, review privileged and service accounts, and make external sharing visible and intentional.
- Include suppliers and dependencies. Understand what data a third party receives, how it protects it, and how access or data return is handled when a relationship changes.
- Test governance in practice. Check whether controls cover the data repositories actually in use, not just those named in policy. Track exceptions, ownership gaps and unprotected stores to closure.
UK statistics illustrate why implementation measures need careful interpretation. The UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 reports that phishing was experienced by 38% of UK businesses and 25% of UK charities; among surveyed organizations that experienced a breach or attack, 69% considered phishing the most disruptive. These are survey findings about UK organizations and reported experiences, not a measure of global cybercrime. The 2025/2026 survey provides the full population and period details.
The UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 found that 71% of businesses and 58% of charities reported backing up data securely via a cloud service. That is reported adoption, not proof that backups were isolated, complete or successfully restorable. The 2025 survey is specific to UK businesses and charities.
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How can I keep backups safe from ransomware?
Keep recovery copies beyond the reach of the systems and accounts that ransomware might compromise. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) #StopRansomware Guide says: “Maintain offline, encrypted backups of critical data, and regularly test the availability and integrity of backups in a disaster recovery scenario.” The guide was revised on October 19, 2023, and warns that ransomware may seek accessible backups to delete or encrypt them. CISA’s guide also discusses cloud-to-cloud backups, object lock or delete protection, versioning, golden images and retaining hardware needed for recovery.
Use more than one kind of copy
A layered plan can combine operational backups for routine restoration with a separate, isolated copy for incidents that affect production and connected systems. Isolation can mean offline storage or a service configured with separate credentials and deletion protections. Encryption helps protect confidentiality, but does not by itself prevent a compromised account from deleting or overwriting a backup.
An encrypted external hard drive can provide a useful offline copy when it is disconnected outside backup windows and stored securely. It is one component of a recovery plan, not a substitute for additional copies, access controls or restore testing.
Compare options by recovery needs
| Approach | Isolation and deletion protection | Update and recovery considerations | Operational trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offline removable drive | Can be disconnected between backup windows; encrypt it and protect the device physically. | Recovery-point exposure depends on how often the copy is updated. Restore time depends on the amount of data and available equipment. | Requires handling, secure storage and a process to rotate and test copies. |
| Cloud backup | Isolation depends on account separation, access controls and whether deletion or overwrite protections are configured. | Update frequency affects potential data loss; restoration depends on service access, data volume and connectivity. | Can reduce local infrastructure needs, but requires ongoing account governance and an understanding of service dependencies. |
| Cloud-to-cloud backup | Can separate the backup copy from the production service; verify credentials and deletion protections are independent enough for the threat model. | Check coverage, update cadence and the time needed to restore data into a usable service. | Adds configuration and administration; confirm which services and data types are included. |
| Versioned or immutable storage | Versioning preserves earlier states; object lock or similar delete protection can impede destructive changes when correctly configured. | Retention settings affect which recovery points remain available and how quickly they can be restored. | Requires careful policy design, monitoring and cost management so protection and retention match business needs. |
No single approach is best for every organization. Compare options against isolation, encryption, resistance to deletion or overwrite, update frequency, restoration time, testability, administrative complexity and total cost. Confirm that the design covers the data and systems the organization actually needs to recover.
Prove recovery, not just backup completion
- Define recovery priorities. Identify critical services and data, acceptable data loss, and the time each service can remain unavailable. Set recovery-point and recovery-time objectives that reflect those business requirements.
- Protect backup administration. Restrict who can change retention, delete copies or alter backup credentials. Where feasible, separate backup administration from production administration.
- Test availability and integrity. Restore representative files, databases and systems in a safe environment. Check that data is usable, dependencies are present and the process works without relying on compromised production credentials.
- Exercise a disaster scenario. Practice restoring critical services in priority order, record how long each step takes, and note missing documentation, keys, hardware or permissions.
- Correct failures and retest. Treat a failed or incomplete restore as a protection gap. Update procedures, backup scope or access controls, then repeat the test.
A successful backup job only shows that a copy was created according to a process. A tested restoration demonstrates whether the copy can support recovery under the conditions that matter.
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