How Air-Gapped Backups Keep Microsoft 365 Safe from Cyberattacks
Why Microsoft 365 needs better backup security
Microsoft 365 is a platform that modern businesses can’t live without. It supports email, file sharing, calendars, and productivity workflows. Microsoft offers availability and basic data resilience, but it doesn’t protect businesses from all situations where they might lose data. If you don’t have a good independent backup plan, accidental deletions, malicious insiders, ransomware, and advanced cyberattacks can all permanently damage Microsoft 365 data.
Air-gapped backups are one of the best ways to protect against these threats. They add an extra layer of protection that regular cloud-only backups don’t always have.
What Does It Mean to Have an Air-Gapped Backup?
An air-gapped backup is a backup copy that is not connected to the main production environment in any way, either logically or physically. This separation keeps attackers, malware, or stolen credentials from getting to or changing backup data.
When it comes to Microsoft 365, air-gapping usually means:
- Backup data that is kept outside of the Microsoft tenant
- Authentication and access controls that are separate
- Not being able to sync live or get to things all the time
This design makes sure that backup data is safe even if Microsoft 365 accounts are hacked.
How Cyberattacks Go After Microsoft 365
Attackers are more and more interested in cloud platforms because they store all of their data and give users access to it in one place. Some common ways to attack are:
- Phishing for credentials and taking over accounts
- OAuth abuse and consent for bad apps
- Deleting or encrypting a lot of files
- Ransomware spreading through devices that are synced
If attackers aren’t kept apart, they can delete or encrypt both live data and backups that are connected, leaving businesses with no way to get their data back.
Why Backups That Are Air-Gapped Stop Ransomware
Ransomware needs access to work. If backups are always connected to production systems, hackers can find and destroy them. Air-gapped backups mess up this process by cutting off direct access paths.
Air-gapped protection stops:
- Deleting backups with stolen admin credentials
- Encrypting backup repositories
- Changing retention policies
- Poisoning automated backups
One of the best ways to make sure you can recover from a cyber incident is to keep things separate.
Air-Gapped Backups vs. Microsoft 365’s Built-In Retention
The recycle bin and retention features in Microsoft 365 are not real backups. They:
- Share the same domain for authentication
- Are at risk of being compromised at the tenant level
- Have short periods of time to keep them
- Can’t stop attacks that are complicated or take a long time to happen
Backups that are air-gapped make separate copies that can be kept for a set amount of time, so you can recover even months after an incident. Independent Access Control is one of the main benefits of Air-Gapped Microsoft 365 Backups.
Air-gapped backups use different credentials and access policies, which lowers the chance that a single breach will put all copies of data at risk.
Keeping for a long time
Companies can keep old versions of documents for compliance, audits, and forensic recovery beyond the limits of Microsoft 365.
Restore Points That Are Clean
When you restore from isolated backups, you can go back to a known clean state without getting infected again.
Governance and Compliance
Air-gapped backups help you follow the rules for protecting data, making sure it can’t be changed, and making sure you can get it back.
How to Set Up Air-Gapped Backups for Microsoft 365
A modern air-gapped backup plan usually has:
- Backup platforms that are not part of the Microsoft tenant
- Storage that can’t be changed or written to once
- Backup windows that are controlled instead of always being open
- Storage in multiple regions for geographic resilience
These parts work together to keep data safe while still allowing for recovery.
Putting Air-Gapped Backups into Business Continuity Plans
Air-gapped backups shouldn’t work on their own; they should be part of a larger plan for keeping things going. They need to be in line with:
- Objectives for recovery time (RTOs)
- Objectives for recovery points (RPOs)
- Workflows for responding to incidents
- Monitoring security and sending alerts
Regularly testing restore processes makes sure that backups are still useful when they are needed most.
Things you should not do
Sometimes, companies hurt air-gapped strategies by:
- Using the same login information for both backup and production
- Giving backup storage constant write access
- Not testing restores
- Not making air-gapping a must, but an option
To get real protection, you need to design and manage things correctly.
Why expert design is important
To set up air-gapped backups for Microsoft 365, you need to think carefully about how to build them. You need to plan network segmentation, authentication separation, encryption, and retention policies all at once. Badly put together solutions can make you feel safe when you’re not.
About the Epis Technology
Epis Technology offers cloud backup, data protection, and enterprise IT infrastructure solutions that are meant to protect against today’s cyber threats. The company focuses on backup plans for Microsoft 365, storage architectures that are air-gapped and unchangeable, and backup platforms based on Synology. Epis Technology helps businesses protect their Microsoft 365 data from ransomware, insider threats, and large-scale cyberattacks by creating isolated, resilient backup environments that follow best practices for business continuity and cybersecurity.