Data backup: why do you need to back up your digital life?

Data backup is among those things in life that are too frequently postponed to someday in the future.

If we have not lost data so far, what is the chance that we eventually will?

Yet, it takes a single system error, a crash, or force majeure to lose it all for good.

So how serious is the risk? Why do individuals and companies need to back up important data? How to back up data smartly?

Why is a data backup important?

Data backup is one of the main criteria in business disaster recovery plans and risk assessment strategies. In short, a data backup is a routine of making a copy of important information, files, and documents and storing them in a separate place.

Backed-up data protects the individual or an organization from a complete data loss in case the original files are stolen, corrupted, or lost in any other way.

Is there a credible motive to be worried? How can data be lost?

Data loss is not too rare in the market. Almost 1 in 3 companies has experienced a data loss in the past year. After that, they all experienced downtime. Alarmingly, every minute of unplanned downtime is estimated to cost a company $17,244. That is over a million dollars per hour.

To break the persistent myth, only a part of data losses (35%) happen due to natural disasters. More common reasons are operational and human mistakes. The mechanical hardware or software failure, accidental deletion, cyber threat (such as virus or malware), or data corruption are the ways the data is lost.

Therefore, it is precarious to ignore the risks and keep data without a backup. It is just a matter of time when some part of it will be lost.

What information should you back up?

As a rule of thumb, you should back up every piece of information significant for your personal or professional life. In other words, back up everything that you feel insecure about losing.

Here are some of the typical files that people back up regularly:

• usernames and passwords,
• emails and attachments,
• documents, contracts, agreements, proofs, records, etc.
• spreadsheets,
• pictures, videos, audios,
• customer databases,
• configuration files,
• other industry-applicable files.

Where and how often to back up?

A frequent data backup is a reliable disaster recovery plan. It assures that in case you lose data, you can still minimize the downtime period to a minimum.

According to the Acronis survey, 26% of companies back up their data daily, 28% – weekly, and 20% back up monthly. As little as 15% of companies do backups multiple times a day, and the rest (10%) do not back up information at all.

There are multiple options for data backups in the market:

• Removable media devices (USB sticks) – easily portable, great for personal use, and small to medium-sized files of content that does not renew;
• External hard drives – great for personal and business use, do not require a network, are fast, and work perfectly for frequent backups;
• Cloud backups – although cloud is usually a more expensive option in the market, it works efficiently for frequently changing data that requires constant updates. Plus, the could protect data backups from natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, flood, fire, etc.);
• Backup as a service – another more expensive but agile solution for data backups. The company does not need to perform centralized backups – the BaaS provider connects the network to a private, public, or hybrid cloud and manages data backups externally.
• Tools that additionally provide a data backup feature – apart from supplying the main features, some tools include backup. In the case of passwords, some password managers provide automatic data synchronization among devices and instant backups to the provider’s cloud.

Ideally, a data backup should become a daily part of personal and professional cybersecurity hygiene. This is the procedure where the acquired benefits (risk assessment and mitigation) are worth any financial or human resource investments.

After all, there’s much at stake. And data backup is what assuredly allows to protect or mitigate it.