Why It’s Essential to Keep Data Backups in Multiple Locations
In today’s world, our digital data is extremely valuable. This means you need to be very careful when it comes to keeping your information safe. Experts recommend keeping backup copies of important data in at least three locations. Here’s why it’s so important and how you can effectively back up your most crucial pieces of data.
Loss or Damage
You should always back up your data so that you don’t completely lose it if something happens to one copy. No matter how secure you are, there’s always the chance that something could go wrong. Physical copies could be lost or stolen from your office. You could also lose digital copies if anything happens to the device they are stored on. Additionally, your physical copies or your devices could be damaged. This could happen as a result of a natural disaster like a fire or flood, but it can also happen as a result of technical issues that corrupt your files.
Theft and Crime
It’s also important to have a backup of your information in the event that it is stolen or corrupted by cybercriminals. Over the years, cybercriminals have become very advanced. They have a wide range of strategies they can use to access your data, hold it hostage, and even make money from it. For example, many cybercriminals will use ransomware to access a crucial piece of data and then charge money for its safe return. If you have multiple backup copies of your data available when this happens, you can focus more on improving your security instead of worrying about lost information.
Which Data to Back Up
We deal with so many different types of data every day, so it can be difficult to determine which ones are most important to back up. In short, you’ll want to back up any data that would have a severe negative impact on your business if you lost it. This includes financial and legal documents, intellectual property, important website files, and more.
Where to Back Up Your Data
There are several different ways to back up your data. Of course, you’ll want to have one copy of your data onsite so that you and your team can access it easily. A great way to back up your data is by using a secure cloud storage provider. With cloud storage, you can access your data on any device as long as you have access to the internet. However, when you use a cloud storage provider, you should encrypt your data and keep an encrypted key for decryption. For a second backup, you should have something local, like another storage device on your network that is well encrypted. For your third backup location, you should make an external copy in case of a disaster or cyberattack.
Remember, no one should have access to your backups except the dedicated person and preferably, a specific device. Because backup is your security and protection.
You can also opt to put your data on a form of external storage that you keep somewhere outside of your office. This could be a USB stick or an external hard drive, depending on how much space you need. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that this external device is stored securely.
If you haven’t started backing up your files yet, now is the time to start. Having everything backed up in multiple places can save your company from disaster in the future.
We at Sytex can help. Get in touch to find out how.
