Cyber Security Awareness Month Tips Series: Backups

Data failure and Hacks occur therefore it is important to make backups to ensure that valuable data isn’t lost.

Data backup is the act of copying your important data to another storage location for recovery. The following situations may require you to do so:

If the data is frequently updated this may require making backup copies more frequently.

Tip 1: Create at least two backups of your original data.

Which data should be backed up

You should define and identify which data and information are sensitive and critical to you to include in your backup.

Tip 2: Identify which information is critical that must be included in the backup. This might be all your data.

These are some backup storage solutions that may be considered to store your backup data depending on your environment, requirements and budget:

Tip 3: Use at least two different storage media for backup of which one should be stored offsite not at the same place

There are a few important backup factors to consider:

It is essential to define and consider these factors in order to guarantee data recovery if anything goes wrong.

Tip 4: Perform recovery tests periodically to verify and ensure the backup data can be restored as projected and can be used.

If you don’t want to stress with new backup hardware and software, Online Backup to Cloud may give you peace of mind.

Here are a few benefits to using these systems:

However, online backup systems also have their drawbacks:

Tip 5: Create a cloud backup account to have access to your data even if your device is corrupted, damaged or stolen

(Source: Caricert. BT&P Publication period: 2021)