NAS servers have always been the perfect equipment to store all the backups, both of computers, laptops as well as all our important photos, videos and documents. The manufacturer QNAP has the Hybrid Backup Sync (HBS) application to manage all the backups, either locally, remotely on another NAS or in the cloud. In this way, we can send a backup to another medium outside the NAS, to comply with the different backup plans. Now there is a very important novelty, and that is that they have incorporated Airgap + to further improve these backups, do you want to know what this feature is?
As cyber threats increase, physically isolated backups (air-gap) become essential to properly protect all our data. This innovative solution allows businesses and home users to properly protect backups, so that they can be restored without problems later. This security measure is perfect for dealing with ransomware.
How Airgap+ Works
The Airgap+ feature is built into QHora routers from the manufacturer QNAP, specifically, it is available on the QHora-321 and QHora-322 models with QuRouter v2.4.2 (or later) operating systems. This router will synchronize with the HBS3 of the NAS server, to allow or deny connections between the source and destination servers, so that during the backup process there is communication, and once it has finished, it will automatically cut off the communication to protect the data on the destination NAS.
In a “standard” scenario, where we have a main NAS server, and then another destination NAS server, the QHora router will allow or deny communication between both, as you can see in the following diagram. This scenario is the most common in domestic environments and small businesses.
In an “advanced” scenario, where we can have more NAS servers, we will have a main NAS isolated from the internal backup network. The NAS that acts as a bridge and the backup NAS will be disconnected until the backup is made from the source NAS to the bridge NAS, and then the file server will be blocked from the network to prevent modifications.
The configuration of this feature is very simple, users must enable the Airgap+ function and select the physical ports in the job configuration on the HBS3 of the NAS, in this way, the QHora router will detect it and allow the traffic while the backup lasts. We must take into account other characteristics of the backups with HBS3, and that is that we will have a great speed if we have a 10G network, in addition, thanks to this fast improved network speed we will have a much faster recovery. Another feature that they have recently incorporated to properly protect the files is the WORM function (once write, many reads), to add another layer of additional protection to the data.
As you can see, this new feature within HBS3 will allow us to comply with the backup plan in a very modern 3-2-1-1-0 strategy, perfect for the cybersecurity of our data.
