(This guide is Part 5 of seven in our Cybersecurity Safety Content Basics Special.)
Quick Tips: Five reasons why you need to backup your data
1) Preventing data loss from human error
The most common reason why you want to backup your data is to prevent it from getting lost. Errors and system failures are not uncommon, an Acronis report stated that 68% of people have reported losing data due to accidental deletion or hardware/software failure. Having a backup means when you need it, at least you have a recovery option available if needed.
2) Technology can fail
Nobody likes to say it, but it can happen. We can use external drives, NAS drives, and subscribe to a Cloud service. But, drives can break, NAS drives can fail in spite of RAID, and not being able to access the Internet makes Cloud services useless. It's important that we use all the backup options available to us. We recommend the following steps:-
- Use a home NAS (network-attached storage) as your primary backup, with an external drive as a secondary backup.
- Finally, use a Cloud backup service like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or a backup service like Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office can be used as a tertiary backup.
3) Shorter recovery time after a hack
Malware can infect files and interfere with a computer’s normal functions and while antivirus and anti-malware solutions do protect and can eliminate malware, your infected files can’t always be restored. Ransomware is a cyberattack that can lock you out of your computer. Backups to an external drive or cloud location can lessen the impact of ransomware attacks where the backup and recovery become part of the strategy to mitigate the potential damage of ransomware.
4) Good Security practice
Having a data backup strategy is simply good cybersecurity practice. A data backup and recovery strategy will provide the best chance of the survival and longevity of your data.
5) Peace of mind
Here, the concern can be that recovery plans are rarely tested by individuals, meaning that restoring data can be stressful, especially when time is sensitive. You should be able to restore your data seamlessly in the event of data loss with a well-designed and tested data backup and recovery strategy. It means there’s no hesitation or questions like ‘What do we do now?’ as it will be a matter of simply executing the plan already laid out. Any data loss can be painful. What is important is being able to sleep well knowing your data is backed up and ready to recover at any time a recovery plan is activated.
Keeping your data safe
Anyone who has had a hard disk crash knows the pain of trying to retrieve data. Whether the data is lost to carelessness or technical failure, the pain is real and one that nobody wants to go through. This doesn't just apply to mechanical drives, as flash and solid state drives face other risks such as component or electrical failures that could render the entire storage unit immediately unusable. That is why the most important data protection tip is backup, backup, and backup.
To remind us of the importance of backing up our data, 31st of March is observed as World Backup Day. It is is a date celebrated annually by the backup and tech industry worldwide to highlight the importance of protecting data and keeping systems and computers secure.
But to be really safe and secure, every day needs to be World Backup Day.
How should I back up my data?
Image source: Unsplash.
The most often quoted strategy is the 3-2-1 approach when you are looking for a backup strategy. This backup strategy relies on the following components:
- Always maintain three copies of the data, the original as well as two additional copies.
- Utilise two different storage media types for storage across the original and copies to mitigate any issues associated with specific storage media types.
- Always maintain a copy of data offsite to prevent data loss in case of site-related issues
How often you should backup your data depends on what sort of data it is.
Essential company data should be backed up every 24 hours. To prevent this backup process from overwhelming computing resources and storage capacity, many companies complete a full backup for only the most essential files. An incremental backup process, which includes less important file types only when they change, saves time and storage space.
Image source: Pexels.
How often you back up your data depends on your personal risk aversion and personal preference, but many experts recommend backing up personal files at least once a week.
Using software to schedule backups is one way to handle things. There are many forms of backup software available that allow you to set it to perform its backups early in the morning when network activity should be light. You can also choose which specific folders to backup so you are only carrying out an incremental backup process, backing up only the files that have changed.
Some examples of well-known backup services include Acronis, Backblaze, and iDrive. If you don't mind going off the beaten path, my editor uses SyncBack to manage scheduled and incremental backups.
While this article is just a primer for cybersecurity safety, it belongs to a 7-part series of articles for consumers to take easy, actionable steps to better prepare against online security threats and what you can do to stay safe.
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