Cybersecurity Guidance By Realising Designs & The Forge Partnership

Backing Up Your Business Data is Critical

Backing up your important data is an essential part of protecting your business from cyber threats and other disasters. By regularly creating backups of your data, you can ensure that you have a copy available in case of a data loss or corruption event. Here are some options for backing up your data:

  1. Use an external hard drive or cloud storage service to create copies of your data.
  2. Schedule regular backups to ensure that you have a recent copy of your data.
  3. Encrypt your backups to protect them from unauthorised access.
  4. Store your backups in a separate location from your primary data to protect against physical disasters.
  5. Test the backups regularly to ensure that they can actually be restored successfully.
  6. Consider using a backup service that offers automatic, continuous backups to ensure that your data is always protected.

Use of Cloud Services

Cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive can help keep files secure by providing a secure and reliable way to store, share and access files over the internet. These services use encryption to protect data while it is being transmitted and while it is stored on their servers. Additionally, the cloud providers have strict security protocols in place such as access controls, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to prevent unauthorised access to user data.

Furthermore, these services often have the advantage of automatic backups and versioning which can aid in disaster recovery in case of data loss. The use of cloud services can also provide for remote collaboration, allowing for secure access to files and documents from anywhere with an internet connection.

Maximising Data Protection: The Benefits of Multiple Backup Locations

Keeping backups of important files in various locations, including the cloud, is an important step in securing those files and ensuring they can be recovered in the event of data loss. By maintaining backups in different physical locations, such as an external hard drive or a secondary server, you can protect against data loss from issues like hardware failure, deliberate system attack or natural disasters.

Additionally, keeping backups in the cloud provides the added benefit of having off-site copies of the data that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. This can be particularly useful in the event of a disaster that makes the primary location of the data inaccessible.

Don’t Wait for a Disaster: The Risks of Not Testing Your Backup

Not testing a backup until you come to rely on it can be a risky proposition. Without testing, you cannot be certain that the backup contains accurate, complete and accessible data. Additionally, if the backup was not properly configured or if the backup system is not functional, you will not be aware of the issues until a disaster occurs and you need to restore your data. This can cause significant downtime, data loss and financial consequences.

“Business data is the lifeblood that keeps a company running, without it, the business is left without a pulse.”

James Montgomery — Engineering Director, The Forge Partnership