Many people make backups of their files for peace of mind, security in case their computers are down, or because they want to be able to access old versions of their documents. But backups can actually save you a lot of money if your computer is hit by a cyber attack. Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly popular among cybercriminals. There’s even an entire industry dedicated to cybercrime services, including one called ransomware where the victim’s data is locked with strong encryption that can only be unlocked with a key which the cybercriminal holds. After payment is made (usually via bitcoin), the criminals provide the key and unlock files on the attacked computer(s). Attacks like this have become so popular that some ransomware variants refuse to install unless they sense the presence of backups and backups are still a common recommendation for home computers.
At any rate, backups will save you time and secure your data against cyberattacks if they exist. But backups can also save you money if your computer is attacked by ransomware. For example, the average cost of a ransomware attack for businesses is $715,000 per year. With backups in place, this could be reduced to perhaps $100-$150 depending on the size of backups (if backups are restored quickly) or even less (if backups are regularly maintained).
One study found that only half of all victims who pay ransoms get their files back; 42 percent lose access to them forever; and 8 percent get their files back but only after paying more than one ransom payment … twice! This is why backups are so important to have in place. Even one backup could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars if your computer is attacked by ransomware and backups exist.
What’s more is that backups will work even when nobody else has ever logged into your computer – something that anti-virus software doesn’t do. This means backups should always protect you regardless of whether or not other people (including friends and family) use your computer. If you don’t have backups, you should try Alt-Tech. Alt-Tech backups are easy to do, fast and they have a 100% guarantee.
In the unfortunate event that identity theft occurs, backups may also help you restore it. They can be used to reverse malware infections which steal all your login credentials, including passwords and bitcoin wallets. In some cases backups may even contain offline copies of extremely important documents such as passports and birth certificates. Making backups isn’t just useful for protecting against cyberattacks either: they can save you a lot of time when recovering from computer issues and backups can be used to sync files between multiple devices which you use.
If backups actually save you money, why don’t more people make them? Well backups aren’t exactly free and they can eat up a lot of space if not managed well. They also require the user to actively remember to run backups after adding or updating files. If backups are automated and in the cloud, then users may forget about them entirely and never trust them until it’s too late. This is important because backups rely on restoring your data from somewhere; something we all know many people never do.
Overall, backups have the potential to save you a lot of money if hit by cyberattacks, backups are perfect for protecting your identity when it’s stolen and backups can make life easier by allowing files to exist in multiple places. However backups also require some responsibility from users who aren’t always keen on keeping backups up to date, making backups an expensive but necessary evil which few people choose to work with. That’s why backup services are on the rise.