5 Common Data Backup Mistakes to Avoid for Your Business
published 9/26/2022In a recent report, it was found that small businesses are not ready for a cyber attack! Having your data backed up is critical for business survival. There are always cyber threats lurking and if you do not carefully and consistently back up your data you could compromise sensitive information.
This information is often difficult to recover. This can cause you to lose a lot of revenue. It can also cause you to lose the trust of your customers and your suppliers.
The best way to prevent data loss is to always back up your data. Backing up your data requires strategic planning. Take a look at some common data backup mistakes and how you can avoid them.
1. Failure to Have a Clear Plan of Action
It is often said that if you don't plan, you are planning to fail. Nowhere is this more true than when you are backing up your data. You need to make sure that you have a clear data backup strategy and stay organized. This is the only way of protecting business data from common cyber threats.
You need to look at it which data need backup. After that, you will need to decide how often you will back up your computer and how you will do your backup.
Decide where you're going to store any hardware or software that you use for your backup. You also need to assemble a team to deal with your data backup especially if you are medium size or large business.
2. Not Having More than One Option
Having more than one backup option is the best move you can make. You should never just have one option for storing copies of your data.
Try a variety of methods. This can include flash drives, cloud storage, and even compact discs. Each of these solutions makes it easier for you to retrieve your data should you lose it.
Storing your data in the cloud is your best bet if you want to minimize the chances that your backup will get damaged. It also means that some of your data will be off-site and this is a good thing. Having all your data on-site is dangerous because your data can be stolen.
Making use of cloud storage means that your data is stored in off-site data centers and can be retrieved at your convenience. Bear in mind though that while cloud backups are safe from physical risks, they are vulnerable to data leakage because of security issues. This is why it is best to take a well-rounded approach to back up your data.
3. Failure to Test Your Backups
It can be easy to become complacent and forget to test your backup systems regularly. You should always be ready to retrieve your data should you lose it.
However, if you are not testing things such as compact discs or thumb drives to make sure that they're not getting corrupted, you may not be able to recover your data when you need it the most.
You must check your data immediately after a power outage, if you have rolled out a new system or if there are any system upgrades or changes. Checking on your data once a month or even once a week depending on how much data you have is the most efficient way to ensure that your data is safe. Use this time to check all your backup systems as well.
4. Not Training Your Employees
While it is important to back up your data consistently. You need to make sure that you avoid possible situations where your data may be compromised and you will need to use the backup.
You can often avoid this by properly training your employees. Your employees are the backbone of your business and often they made mistakes that can compromise your data. You need to train them to be on the lookout for cyber security threats that can easily affect and compromise your data.
For example, it's very common for cyber criminals to use phishing emails and phishing websites to try to gain personal information from your employees. Employees should make sure that they do not give out sensitive company information via email.
They should also be taught to always check that their browser is secure when inputting sensitive information.
5. Avoiding Automation
Automation has made making backups for your data very easy to achieve. Automatically backing up your system is quick and easy especially when you do cloud storage. No longer will you have to depend on manual storage, you can just set up automated backups and forget it for the most part.
You will usually get notifications on your phone to tell you that the backup has been successful. The best thing about automated backups is that they free you to do other tasks, this is valuable time, especially if you are a small business owner.
Avoid Data Backup Mistakes
Backing up your data is vital if you want to make sure that your business is secure. You must avoid data backup mistakes at all costs to protect your business. Fortunately, there are several ways in which you can back up your data very easily.
You just have to make sure that you are consistent and that you choose a variety of backup methods for your data. Once you do this, you will minimize cyber threats to your data and also minimize the chance of your data getting lost.
If you would like to help your company's data backup, please do not hesitate to contact us.
