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Protect Your Data – You Are Doing It Wrong!

by: Omri Toppol Apr 18,2016

Information security is important so those obnoxious hackers can’t get into your system and steal your information right?

But there’s more to information security software than just keeping the bad guys out.

In order to protect your data, you also need to make sure all your data is stored properly so that it’s ready and available when YOU need it. Picture this scenario:

You’re about to sit down with a big client. You want to look over your notes for a deal that could double your annual revenue. You sit down at your desk and open your computer, but can’t find the file anywhere! Your data is lost, and it’s not coming back.

Back, Back, Back it Up!

If you’ve ever had this happen to you, you know the crippling damage data loss can have on a potential deal.

You also know how important proper data storage is, and that’s why you need a smart system to ensure your information is stored securely and safely so it’s there for you when you need it most.

Here’s the best way of keeping data in its place:

Back. It. Up. Three little words that mean a whole lot.

Backing up data ensures that you can access the information from wherever you are. This is especially useful if your computer or account has been hacked and you can no longer access it via the original method.

Backup and Protect Your Data Right, Live to Tell About It

There are several ways to back up your data, but cloud storage is probably the smartest, easiest, and more accessible option for most of us.

Clouds can store huge amounts of data, and they’re super secure, so you won’t have to worry about security breaches.

Now that you know you should be backing up data, here are some tips for doing it right:

Map it out

You’ve got a lot of data.

Do you want to back it all up, or are there things that don’t really matter to you if they get lost or not (like that picture of Aunt Agnes on her 70+ citizens cruise)?

Make a list of all the information you want stored including photos, movies, work files, and more so you have a better idea of what needs to be backed up.

Automatic vs. Manual

There are basically two kinds of backing up services: automatic and manual.

Automatic backup systems like Apple’s iCloud backup happen behind the scene. You’ll never know they’re there unless you need to get a file that went missing.

Alternatively, manual backups require you to actively back up your files.

This means that if you aren’t on top of backing up, you might get stuck in an ugly situation of missing files because they were never sent to the backup.

Of course, manually backup gives you more control over what goes in and that can be a good thing according to this interesting read. Manual is also good for more sensitive info that you don’t want automatically sent to an external storage space that’s hosted on a third party server.

You can also do a little of both. Use auto backup for your pics and random stuff, and manual backup for the important files.

Just keep a reminder handy so you are always backing up what needs to be there.

How to back up

Cloud-based backups are great for their storage capacity and convenience.

If you’ve got a lot of sensitive info though, you’ll probably want to keep a local backup as well.

You can do this on a regular hard drive that you can buy at any computer store. This way you have double insurance that your files are available.

Encryption

Let’s talk a minute about security.

Whenever you send sensitive information across the cloud, you MUST encrypt it.

Otherwise, anyone who taps into the network can see your secrets as easily as that peeping Tom next door with his mega binoculars!

To encrypt something, you simply need to zip the file, password protect it, and choose an AES-256 encryption.

You don’t need to understand the bits and bytes of what that means, but suffice it to say that it’s a pretty “strong” encryption.

If you are using a local backup disk, check if you can encrypt the entire disk. That way, even if it gets physically stolen, your data will remain safe.

Don’t forget your other devices

We keep sensitive data everywhere – on our iPhones, our laptops, our tablets. Make sure you have backup services set up for them so nothing gets lost in transmission.

Now, that you know how to protect your data and you’ve got everything backed up, you can sigh a sigh of relief knowing that your photos, videos, work files, and other information will always be there when you need it.

Now that’s what we call “Information Security”!