Top 5 ways to prevent data loss
17th July 2018
Data loss can be disastrous for companies. Whether it is from a security breach or a careless mistake, the impact can be huge and can result in a loss of revenue and customers, irreversible damage to the company reputation and, following the introduction of GDPR, large regulatory fines.
One alarming fact is that 60% of companies who lose their data shut down within 6 months. So don’t let this happen to your business – putting in place robust plans to prepare for this is crucial. Here are five ways you can prevent data loss in your company.
#1 Regular back up strategy with testing
Developing a structured backup strategy for your business is critical. You should have a process in place where all your business data, files and emails are consistently backed up so should data loss occur, your business can be up and running again within hours rather than days, or weeks. Your backup plan should include the different levels of data you maintain in your company and the schedule for their backups – and be sure that you test your backup files regularly to make sure the process is working properly.
#2 Diversify your back ups
It is important to have more than one backup system. The data should be stored locally and in two secure offsite data centres. There is a general rule of 3-2-1 : there should be 3 backups of anything that’s very important, these should be in 2 different formats (at least) such as in the cloud and on a hard drive, and there should always be 1 off-site backup in the event that there is damage to your physical office. Ideally, your company should be able to run off the remote backup data whilst it is being restored so your business will be up and functioning within a few hours.
#3 Encrypt business data
Data on backups aren’t always encrypted. This means that the data on lost or stolen tapes or hard drives could easily be accessed by whoever finds it. It is always advisable to use a backup and disaster recovery system that backs up your data and automatically encrypts and password protects all backups.
#4 Use robust anti-virus and email security
Email threats come from many angles, and the importance of secure email can be overlooked by some businesses. Email security breaches such as hacking, phishing or ransomeware can cause many of the biggest threats to data. It is important that you implement a powerful email security and antivirus software to prevent malignant emails getting through. Be sure to provide continuing education to your teams about the importance of email security.
#5 Address mobile data security
With the majority of businesses now using mobile devices such as laptops, phones and tablets as part of their everyday business it is important to address mobile security – these devices usually hold a huge amount of sensitive information about you and your clients. To comply with data regulations and to protect your business you need to make sure your devices, if lost, can be wiped with a remote device management system, are password protected and that you use hardware or mobile device systems to encrypt all data.
Protecting Your Business
Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that data loss might happen to your business one day but if you are prepared and have the right back up systems in place it’s not the end of the world.
We can offer a secure online backup system using complex encryption technology to make your data immune to unauthorised access and provide you with leading-edge data storage facilities based in centres that have been awarded the Royal Warrant.
We are here so if the worst happens and you suffer a partial or full loss of data, we can restore your data either via web access or rapid delivery of a recovery hard drive to your door, so you'll be up and running again as quickly as possible. Get in touch today to protect your business.
