World Backup Day: Best practices for small to mid-sized companies

We constantly hear phrases like ‘data is the new oil’ — and just like oil it needs to be stored carefully. According to research commissioned by Arcserve, 52% of mid-sized companies that have experienced data loss in the last five years could not recover all their data and the average loss they suffered ranged from $120,000 to $1.24 million.  

What is World Backup Day?  

While there are plenty of ways to lose your data (malicious software, technical failure, and good old human error) when it comes to shoring up your defenses, the underlying principle remains the same — back up your data and test your backup recovery. There’s even a day to remind you to do just that—World Backup Day is observed on March 31. And, appropriately, it happens to be a day before April 1 — to remind us we’d be fools to not backup our data.   

What is data backup best practice?  

Here are some best practices for small to medium businesses to follow this World Backup Day: 

1. Schedule and automate backups Automating backups can save time and reduce the risk of human error. Automate backups with software for regular and timely execution, avoiding lengthy intervals between instances. Follow the rule of thumb: schedule daily backups or at least weekly full backups for small businesses.
2. Back it up offsite Off-site storage could be a cloud-based platform, or a physical server located outside of your office.Having this advantage will greatly protect your data in the event of a central server compromise in the case of a natural disaster, cyberattack, or other business disruptions could destroy your onsite server, but an offsite backup will remain untouched.
3. Put your backups to the test periodically Testing backups regularly is essential to verify that the backed-up data is complete, accurate, and can be restored in a reasonable time frame. Because regular backup testing reveals system issues like software or hardware failures that may otherwise remain unnoticed. It plays a crucial role in disaster recovery planning by identifying gaps in backup and recovery processes.
4. Implement encryption and security measures: Encrypting backup data is crucial to protect it from unauthorized access, and corruption and creates an added layer of security. Also, it makes data recovery a smooth process. You can achieve data encryption by employing strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and secure transfer protocols.
5. Develop a disaster recovery plan: A backup is only as good as its disaster recovery plan. Like a good insurance policy, a disaster recovery plan helps businesses get back on their feet by outlining the recovery process, backup restoration, and communication plan.
   Disaster recovery plan benefits: Outlines recovery, backup restoration, and communication, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

What can happen if you don’t backup? 

Toy Story 2 incident: Characters of Woody & Buzz Lightyear were accidentally wiped, emphasizing the need for data recovery plans. Someone had used the command rm *, deleting every file below the initial directory.   After looking for the film’s backups, he found that the automated backups hadn’t been working for a month.  But there was still hope. So, Galyn Susman, Toy Story 2’s supervising technical director had been working from home after she’d had a baby. She automatically received the film’s files on a weekly basis, and luckily, she had backups on her home computer, recovering nearly all the lost files. Appropriately, 24 years later, Susman went on to produce Lightyear, the origin story of Buzz Lightyear.   Unfortunately, not all companies that have huge data breaches and losses have a happily ever after. Which is why it is important to make sure that your firm has the policies and protocols in place to mitigate damage. 

How can Autobahn Security help? 

Data backup priority: World Backup Day reminds businesses to implement best practices and prevent data loss. Comprehensive backup strategy: Select appropriate solutions, secure data, and regularly test backup and recovery systems. For more advice on how Autobahn Security can help protect your business from hackers causing data breaches or loss, make sure to book some time with one of our experts.