Using Google Drive for Backup and Ransomware Protection
Overview of Google Drive
Your team and staff create and collaborate on thousands of documents, spreadsheets and presentations everyday. Google drive one of the applications in the G Suite offers offers powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you manage all of this content more securely and efficiently, while retaining control over your users, content, and devices.
Google Drive lets users in your organization keep creating,sharing and seamlessly accessing their Docs, Sheets,Forms,Videos and Pictures from anywhere, on any internet enabled device in real time with all your data automatically saved to the cloud, when I use automatically am meaning that there will be no hustle of using save tool, ctrl+s etc to store your files.
In addition to standard Google Drive, the G Suite Business SKU and G Suite Education, all come with Team Drives, a team based collaborative drive that allows for ease of sharing and collaborating on files with teams/functions
If your business uses G Suite Business or Enterprise version, there will be an unlimited amount of Gmail and Google Drive capacity per account. You can use this account to backup and synchronize your computer with unlimited backups.
For G Suite Basic SKU, The storage capacity by default is 30 GB. Again should this not worry you in case you have more files to backup. Here are two ways you can use to increase capacity beyond 30GB;
- You can increase by yourself through;
- Go to https://drive.google.com and click “Upgrade storage”
- This method requires an individual to log in to his /her own account and then make a fee payment.
- Storage added in this way can not be transferred to anyone else in the company. (Eg, you can not transfer storage purchased to others when you leave)
- Purchase cost per storage Note : https://drive.google.com/settings/storage
2. You can increase capacity through resellers who provide G Suite services
- You can add individual capacities by contacting your reseller through the G Suite administrator. This method is not for individuals to take action.
- If capacity is added in this way, the administrator can transfer the storage to others Eg, you can transfer the storage you bought when you left) But the cost of adding storage is much different than the way individuals buy it.
- Purchase cost per storage Note : https://drive.google.com/settings/storage
Working with Microsoft Files within Google Drive
When you’re collaborating with an external agency, negotiating a contract with a client or coordinating a sales agreement with a supplier, chances are you’re dealing with multiple file formats. With this update, you can now comment on those files in Drive the way you’re used to in Google Docs. In the Drive preview pane, comment, assign tasks, or mention coworkers and the people you work can reply back, even if they’re not using G Suite. Let’s say your coworker opens a file on her Windows laptop using MS Word, she will see your comment in the file and can reply right from there.
With commenting in Drive preview, you won’t need to open up other tools to complete tasks. Instead, open Microsoft Office files, like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, in Drive preview and give feedback in comments then get back to work.
How to use Google Drive to Backup Your Data
Cloud storage and other services suffice for backup when you don’t have that many folders and files to safeguard. In those cases, it will probably save you money over opting for one of the best online backup providers. In this guide, I show you how to use Google Drive to backup your data, so you can decide if it is the most surefire way to guard against loss.
There are a few ways to backup data using Google Drive. On your desktop, you can make use of the Google Drive sync folder, though it has drawbacks. Google Drive also has a backup feature that allows you to set up continuous, one-way sync between a desktop folder and the cloud. That is the more reliable method of the two.
Finally, the Google Drive smartphone app is a great way to make sure your photos and videos are automatically uploaded to the cloud.
Let us begin
- Backup with Google Drive Sync
Most clouds storage providers use sync folders. In appearance, there’s little to distinguish them from any other file system folder.
The difference is that they are connected to the cloud. Files stored in them are kept both in the cloud and on your hard drive. The primary purpose of the sync folder isn’t backup, but productivity. You can see changes made to a file on one device reflected on another in near-real-time.
2. Google Drive Backup and Sync
With Drive File Stream, you can preview more than 40 popular file formats and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files from any device. Team Drives provide collaborative spaces to store, sync, and share files, making it easy to track changes and manage permissions. Hundreds of apps — including DocuSign for e-signatures, CloudLock for additional security layers, and LucidCharts for mockups — integrate directly with Drive and plugins for Microsoft Office and Outlook make it easy to fit Drive into existing workflows.
We would like to interest you in Google Drive as part of the G Suite offering for storing and accessing your data and files of any type securely on all your devices. By specifying folders to be backed up on the local computer, backup synchronization can be done automatically.
Launch the tool by right-clicking the “backup and sync” icon in your taskbar. Click the three-dots menu in the top right and select “preferences.” That will open a bigger window with three tabs down the left side: “my laptop,” “Google Drive” and “settings.”
To add folders, click “choose folders.” A file system browser window that you can use to add folders to your backup plan will open. Once you’ve made your selections, you can alter the backup behavior of Google Drive by clicking “change.” That will give you an option to only backup photos and videos, as well as selection boxes to backup RAW data and screenshots.
If you delete a file on my computer, a pop-up window will appear as shown below, asking if you want to delete the file from Google Drive. In other words, if my computer files are deleted, Google Drive files will not be automatically deleted. This can prevent a user from accidentally deleting it, and prevent viral apps, such as Ransomware, from deleting files at will.
G Suite Business (Unlimited) users can backup unlimited backups with this account.
How to restore the previous version when you delete or change the original file.
In G Suite, there are several ways to restore original files if they are deleted or changed.
Restoring an updated source file to a previous version
- If you’re using the “Google Drive Backup & Sync” app mentioned above to backup or sync your computer, it will automatically sync to Google Drive when files on your computer are modified or changed.
- Synchronized files are automatically versioned whenever an update occurs. Older versions are automatically kept for 30 days and can be restored to the previous version within this period.
2. Restoring deleted files by users
- If you delete files, the deleted files are automatically archived to the Google Drive Trash.
- The original file is deleted from my computer, and my computer’s Trash can be emptied. However, if you’ve installed the Google Drive Backup & Sync app, your deleted files will be automatically archived in your Google Drive Trash. You can find the original in the Google Drive Trash and restore it.
- The files remain in the Trash until the user empties the Trash.
- The files remain in the Recycle Bin until the user empties the Recycle Bin.
- If a user flushes to the Recycle Bin in Google Drive, the user has no way to restore the original file. However, the G Suite administrator can restore a Google Drive file deleted up to 25 days before the current point in time.
3. Restoring deleted original files from team folders in G Suite Business Team Drive
Members who share a team drive will automatically keep their members in the team folder or the files they have deleted in the Team Folder Trash. You can find and restore the original from the Team Drive trash.
- Team Drive Trash is kept for 30 days and automatically deleted after 30 days
- If the user empty the Google Team Drive Trash, the user has no way to restore the original file. However, the G Suite administrator can restore the Google Team Drive files deleted up to 25 days before the current point in time.
4. How G Suite Administrator restores files deleted by users
If a user flushes to the Google Drive Recycle Bin, the user has no way to restore the deleted file. In this case, the G Suite administrator can restore deleted files up to 25 days from now.
Administrators will not be able to restore files older than 25 days, but if G Suite Business or G Suite Basic users are using Google Vault, they will be able to retrieve users and their sources through Vault and download them.
How to use G Suite to protect against Ransomware
G Suite offers the biggest advantage:
- No separate system for spam processing is needed.
- G Suite’s Gmail uses machine learning technology to automatically filter spam.
- The administrator can control the attachment of the mail received from the recipient or from the outside.
2. No separate backup equipment is required.
- All files stored in Google Drive are automatically versioned
- Even if the files in the synchronized folder on the local computer are modified or changed, they are automatically versioned and can be restored to the previous version
- Deleted original files exist until they are emptied from the Google Drive Recycle Bin and can be restored at any time
- If a user is emptied into the Google Drive Recycle Bin, these will be physically deleted. (Personal free Google Drive (15GB) users will not be able to restore it anymore if they empty the Recycle Bin. Restore all deleted files
- G Suite Business Team Drive managed as a trash folder per team folder. Files deleted from the team folder will remain in the trash folder for 30 days in each team folder. Files deleted completely after 30 days can be restored by administrator 25 days before present
- Using the “Google Drive Backup & Sync” app provided by Google. Automatic backup of folders and files on local computer
3. G Suite does not need a separate integrated document management system
- G Suite Business provides document management through centrally controlled team drives
- Audit all events from Google Drive in the Admin console
- Control through all document authorization
4. No security patch required by users
- G Suite is a 100% cloud system. In the user environment, updates and patches are done automatically in the cloud system.
Google drive is just one of the services in G Suite. To know and explore more about G-Suite click on https://pawait.africa/gsuite/
