Using a NAS for secure backups

[rikshiner]

Hi,

I have posted previously about creating a backup system and the best way to go about this but have received no suggestions. After some investigation I have thought that a NAS might be the best way to backup their files but my knowledge of them is limited.

Firstly, the files they would be backing up are for work and are very sensitive so would require good security when being backed up, how secure can these wifi connected NAS be?

Also after security their main issue is convenience and the current system they have is pretty long and problematic as they are not tech savvy, would a NAS be able to just save all the files needed at the end of the day or is the process more complicated?

Finally if there are any other suggestions to backing up sensitive data, quickly and simply then that would be a great help, or if anyone could point me towards a NAS that can do these things.

 

[jsmithepa]

You are thinking NAS probably for convenience, which I can understand in an environment of non-tech users, but truly secured backups needs to be off line when you are done with the backup, I hope the reason is obvious.

Due to the above reason, I have thought about deploying a box dedicated for backup, this box will control when the backups occur, extract what needs to be backed up and writes to the backup medium, all your other clients then have no direct access to the backup medium, this secures it. This box will be dedicated to this task and does nothing else, has no Internet access blah-blah, but this maybe beyond your budget and complication.

If you are worried about someone tapping into your WIFI and able to monitor the data stream then you have no choice but to go wired. You maybe able to encrypt a WIFI stream but that's beyond my knowledge.

 

[why_wolf]

The easiest setup would be to have all the files hosted on a NAS or fileserver which performs its own backup. That way everything is in one central place, easier to enforce security and encryption on it, less danger of a laptop going missing with files saved on it. The users would just connect to the network folders to view files instead of having them saved locally on their machines (a giant security no, no).

But yes almost any NAS, look at Synology or Qnap, can perform desktop/laptop scheduled back ups. As well as backups of the NAS itself. The NAS and backups can be encrypted as well if you want.

Unless the WiFi is contained to a defined restricted space it is not secure, period. Not to mention a bad signal can slow down the backup process or cause it fail entirely. Network backups should really be done over Ethernet to insure a stable, fast connection.

 

[rikshiner]

After considering it I do think a NAS is possible as although the data is important it isn't something anyone is actually searching for but rather if someone stole the computer/nas then the files would need to be encrypted. If I could encrypt files on the NAS and possibly make some kind of authorisation mechanism whereby only the work computers could access files with a password then it may work.

I will look at Synology and Qnap to see if anything suits them, thanks for the answers