The Importance of Backing Up Your Data and Files
By Tara Shegogue, Mythic Landing Enterprises, LLC
We all have important data on our computers, Smartphones,
etc. We know that the threat of a system crash is always looming, but do we
take the time to backup properly and as frequently as we should? Some people
may even wonder, why backup your information at all?
According to research done by the Boston Computing Network, 6%
of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year. Given the
number of PCs used in US businesses in 1998, that translates to approximately
4.6 million data loss episodes. At a conservative estimate, data loss cost US
businesses $11.8 billion in 1998. (The Cost Of Lost Data, David M. Smith). Now,
in 2014, that number has almost tripled!
Here are some other statistics that you may or may not know:
- 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. 70% fail within five years. (Home Office Computing Magazine)
- 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
- 34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% have found tape back-up failures.
- 60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.
- 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. (National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
- American business lost more than $7.6 billion as a result of viruses during first six months of 1999. (Research by Computer Economics)
- Companies that aren't able to resume operations within ten days (of a disaster hit) are not likely to survive. (Strategic Research Institute)
- Every week 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States. (Mozy Online Backup)
- Simple drive recovery can cost upwards of $7,500 and success is not guaranteed.
Having duplicate copies of your most important information
saved in a remote location keeps it safe in case anything goes badly wrong with
your computer.
When you think about it, there are a number of ways files can
be lost unexpectedly:
- Computer crashes – always happen when you least need it, and can lead to data loss.
- Virus Infection – aggressive malicious viruses can corrupt files and disable computers.
- Hard drive failure - hard drives have a finite lifetime and can fail suddenly and without warning. The sudden death of a hard drive can cause the painful loss of months or years of irreplaceable files and the timing can be catastrophic – if this happens close to a work or college deadline it could be a nightmare scenario.
- Physical computer damage – your files are more at risk if you use a laptop. Light and portable comes at the price of reduced durability. Laptops are sensitive and are easily damaged if dropped or have drinks spilled over them.
- Theft – computers are sought after by thieves and cannot always be kept secure while traveling.
The bottom line is that if you value what’s kept on your
computer, it’s wise to take steps to protect your information from sudden
loss. Work can be redone, but the loss
of cherished files like family and travel photos is permanent.
Many users regularly back up their files to their computer
hard drive, but in the event of a total computer breakdown this will not
protect the information. Saving data to
a separate location makes far more sense, and can be easily done if you have an
external hard drive, or a large-capacity pen drive to back up onto.
However this method is only as secure as the device you’re
backing up to. When saving your files on physical devices, your backup device
needs to be kept in a different location than your computer, and can in turn
fall victim to damage or loss. In addition, despite your best intentions, you
may forget to copy your files as often as you should, leaving a large amount of
recent work unprotected.
••••••••
- Our systems are monitored by Trustwave for any unauthorized access or anyone trying to break the numerous firewalls we have in place for protecting your customers' data.
- Virus protection is updated regularly.
- The latest level of data encryption is in place.
- Policies & procedures are in place to make sure all passwords meet the highest level of security and are under constant review.
- Access control is limited to a need-to-know basis and security cameras track any movement in sensitive areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment