Backup your critical business data or lose everything in a flash — which option would you choose? According to experts, 60% of companies that suffer data losses close down within six months.
This means that backing up your critical business data is a must if you are a CEO of a small to medium-sized business. Your business data is one of the most valuable resources you need to protect.
Common Threats to Business Data
There are several threats that can cause data loss.
Kirk Magleby of Nuvek, an Idaho data center, says, “In today’s digital landscape, it’s important for businesses in all industries to understand the forces that threaten their data. These include natural disasters, disgruntled employees, hackers, ransomware, malware, phishing, and human error. With these threats looming, it’s becoming more critical for businesses to have data backup services that follow best practices for data protection, such as achieving full redundancy, temperature control, and both physical and virtual security to mitigate the impact of these threats.”
Here are some of the ways these threats can affect your business and what you can do to mitigate them:
Hackers, Malware, and Ransomware
Malicious software and cyber-criminals pose severe threats to business data. Although hackers are rampant in the business world, malware, spyware, and viruses continue to lead the causes of data breaches and losses.
It doesn’t matter whether your business is small or large — hackers can target vulnerabilities in your organization and plot attacks that may cost you precious data.
Installing anti-malware and antivirus software can help you get rid of malicious programs, but they may not provide a lasting solution to data losses; backup does. Assuming your organization lost all its data in an attack, you can be sure that you are in for a wild ride.
Physical Disasters
Cyber-attacks may be rampant in the COVID-19 era; nevertheless, they are not the only threats to your business data. Business owners can never overlook physical disasters as threats to their data.
Flood, fire, and other forms of natural disasters can cause major damage and loss, without prior notice. In worst-case scenarios, data recovery will not be possible if your organization failed to back up its data.
A company that does not create multiple backups is likely making a big mistake, as the mere loss of a computer hard drive or another storage device could spell doom for the entire organization. And aside from theft cases, you need to understand that your critical hardware and software can also fail at any time.
Additionally, without a sound backup plan, you may be running your business into the unknown. Computer experts agree that having a small backup plan is better than none, and the statistics prove it.
The average cost of a data breach for a US company is $8.19 million, more than any other country in the world. Backing up your data could mean the difference between your company surviving and not.
How Should You Backup Your Data?
You can use cloud storage platforms to back up your critical business data. However, cloud platforms are still vulnerable to attackers. So, always run local data backup as well.
Ideally, backup software that can zip and encrypt your data is a big plus for your organization’s continuity. Create multiple copies of your backup files and store them in different locations. Your off-site data backup should be secure, as well.
To wrap things up, backup is simply your best contingency plan against all uncertainties. Storing your data at a third-party data center and ensuring you work with a trusted backup services provider can save your business enormous costs and damages.