Data backups are a security measure to help safeguard your network.

Should your environment ever become compromised, having a strong backup will help restore your data timely.

Many reputable businesses with a full IT staff pay hundreds and thousands per month to ensure their company data is backed up properly and secure. You think you’re too small for a hacker, think again. Ransomware is the most prevalent of threats where the hackers take over your company’s systems by encrypting the files then demand substantial amounts of money to get your data back. Law enforcement will advise you NOT to pay so your only recourse in a ransomware attack is to have recent full back up of your data. With a full backup, there is a continuous snapshot of your data being saved in case you need to restore it from a previous version. These snapshots allow you to recover timely and restore quickly from the previous backup point.

We recommend a cloud backup solution, but check out these different types and learn more about why we suggest a cloud backup solution to keep your business from financial hardship.

What’s wrong with tape backups? They are archaic. How do you know that you have a good copy of your backups on those tapes? Do you test to see if you can retrieve information from those tapes? Is there a rotation and what happens if a rotation is missed or written over?

What’s wrong with an external hard drive? Is that drive encrypted? It’s a mobile device so that means it could walk away with anyone at any time – lost or stolen data.

What’s wrong with using the backup software on the system itself? What happens if that hardware fails you won’t have access to your data. What happens if there’s a fire in your office and the hardware is torched. What happens if there’s a flood that prevents you from physically access your backup?

There’s help! There are a number of backup options; however, we recommend a cloud solution that will offer not only full backups to the cloud, but the data is readily available and securely accessible. Carbonite is a good fit for a small business.

Backup often. A good backup routine would provide you with automatic backups on an hourly snapshot.

Secure your data. If your data is compromised, you’re only as good as your most recent backup. Ensure your data is encrypted or accessible using two-factor authentication.

Store safely. Archive and save data offline securely. This reduces the risk that the data will be lost, deleted or corrupted.

Store offsite. If you’re still using tapes and external hard drives should be saved offsite. NOTE: We strongly urge you to replace older tape technology.

Now that you have your data backed up, do you have a business continuity plan? If your business needs help with a data backup plan, complete our contact form, call us at 813-862-1808 and email at info@hawkbg.com.