Data security is the most important part of your disaster recovery plan. Your trade secrets, research, and CRM data are the very heart of your company’s identity. But are your data backups as secure as you think?
Find out why data security should be a top priority, and how to back up your data while keeping it safe.
Hiring a basic data recovery company or using standard cloud backup services for your company’s data may have been sufficient in the past. However, businesses continue to fall victim to viruses, cyber attacks, hardware malfunctions, and much, much more. Unfortunately, when these companies try to retrieve their data, they find it corrupted, copied, or simply wiped out.
Luckily, there are ways to back up your data that can turn would-be disasters into minor inconveniences.
What is a data backup?
Dumping your company’s data onto an external hard drive or a Google doc and calling it a day no longer qualifies as a data backup.
These days, a proper data backup should be:
- Monitored: Someone needs to keep watch over your data. After all, it is your business’ most prized possession.
- Protected: Defenses must be in place in case of an attack. Just one breach could cost you everything.
- Virtual and Physical: Hard and soft copies need to be made and protected.
- Constantly updated: Hackers break locks. That is their job. If you do not update your data security, it is only a matter of time before your safe is cracked.
It sounds like a lot of work, but you do not have to do it alone. A dedicated data recovery company can do all of this so your company can get back to business. Is it an investment? Yes, but the services provided by a data recovery company far outweigh the cost. Let us explain why.
Why data backups are essential in 2019
Your company is successful because it is good at what it does. But if your company does not specialize in data security, then outsourcing to an Arkansas managed IT services specialist could not only save your business money, it could save it from financial disaster. Here are just a few reasons why.
Disasters are very, very expensive
The number one reason to back up your data the right way is that if you do not, it will eventually cost you money…a lot of money. Over 70% of data breaches cost the victim over $5,000, and nearly 1 in 5 cost over $100,000.
With prices that high, it is easy to see why over 60% of small businesses that suffer an attack close their doors within 6 months. Having a third party data security firm in your corner can keep your business from becoming another statistic.
Cybercrime is on the rise
As of 2017, over half of U.S. companies have been hacked. No matter how well established your business is,if it is not protected, your data is incredibly vulnerable.
It used to be that hackers would only go after large corporations, since they were much more profitable targets than small businesses. However, CEOs are taking cyber security more seriously than ever, and in response, hackers are moving down the ladder and easily preying on small businesses.
Natural disasters can strike anytime
Natural disasters and weather related incidents are on the rise globally, but the U.S. has experienced some of the biggest increases in disaster occurrences. Businesses which have not experienced a weather issue in decades are now at risk of floods, wildfires, tornadoes, or hurricanes.
Almost everything your business owns is replaceable—except your data. If it is not backed up properly, no amount of insurance coverage will help you recover it.
Your trade secrets are at risk
Ransomware attacks rose by over 90% in 2017 alone. These vicious programs take your vital trade secrets and other data for ransom. If your data is not properly backed up, you could find yourself at the mercy of criminals.
Even if you pay, there is no guarantee that your information will not be copied and put up for sale. Your competitors may not be responsible for your disaster, but if your trade secrets are floating around out there, they will be clamoring to get their hands on them. Having a third party data recovery company on your side helps you safeguard your data from your competitors, and from threats that are harder to detect.
You could face litigation
Equifax, Facebook, Marriot, Cambridge Analytica… even the biggest companies in the world have fallen victim to data security disasters. And, as a result, many of them have found themselves in trouble with the authorities.
These companies have the resources to litigate for years, but your small businesses likely does not. If your customers’ confidential data gets leaked, a PR nightmare will be the least of your worries. You may find yourself with six-figure penalties imposed by the state, and possibly even time in prison.
You will lose credibility
Of course, the PR nightmare that comes with a data breach is not insignificant. Your customers will lose trust in you if you suffer a data loss. In fact, more than 20% of businesses that suffer a data loss lose clients. Losing your data due to avoidable disasters looks especially bad, but all data loss is seen as negligent in the eyes of your customers.
It may cause downtime
If you lose all your customers’ information, how are you supposed to send them their next newsletter? Renew their subscription? Ship backorders?
Or maybe you lost thousands of R&D files on a product that you were expecting to unveil soon? Back to the drawing board.
Losing your data is nearly akin to losing your business. If you need to reconstruct your entire database, your day-to-day may slow down or even come to a stop. How much revenue would that cost your company?
How to back up your data the right way
Making sure your data is backed up properly can mean the difference between a quick bounce back and a slow, up-hill recovery. That is why we at Scale have made this checklist to help you ensure that your next data back up completely covers you in the event of an emergency..
Your data backup…
- Has been copied 3 times
- Is stored in 3 different locations
- Is located on and off-site
- Exists in hard and virtual forms
- Is separate from your production data
- Is protected by multi-factor authentication
- Is encrypted
- Has an alarm system (alerts sent in case of changes)
- Employs delayed delete
- Is monitored and updated by trained personnel
This is a long list, we know. But in 2019, protecting your sensitive information is practically a full-time job. That is why the easiest way to ensure complete data security is to hire a managed IT services firm. In fact, one of the primary reasons that small businesses suffer data losses is that they neglect to hire specialists to safeguard their data. Do not make the same mistake!
Scale Technology is an Arkansas-managed IT services firm that has been protecting local small business’ data for years. We have seen just about every type of disaster and cyber threat there is, and nothing has ever cracked our state-of-the-art data backup protocols. To learn more about developing a failsafe disaster recovery plan for your business, contact us today.
