How do you know if your Backup system works or not and that your data is truly protected?
For most this will be discovered in times of emergency and this could be too late if what’s in place hasn’t worked!
Similar to testing your fire procedure, health and safety polices and others – focusing on your security requirements at the start and then carrying out short periodic reviews can save your business.
Copying and pasting your ‘Documents’ to an external USB drive is one way of ensuring you have a copy but this can be cumbersome, forgotten and isn’t very safe.
You may say that it’s quick and easy to do this, however to really protect your data start thinking about “protecting your computer” since there are many reasons you may need to restore data beyond accidentally deleting something or overwriting files. We could provide a long list of potential reasons but bottom line is to begin by looking at your machine and asking what are the risks?
Typically protection today will start with safeguarding your computer against hackers and cyber-attacks and end with having a robust backup system.
Here at Depositit we have always taken a responsible approach when helping our customers, providing advice based on their own personal requirements and providing an understanding of the pros and cons and limitations of manual, local backups and flexibility and security of automated, offsite backups.
To protect your computer against cyber threats use Depositit C360. Set up takes 2 minutes and if you like images, this is like a guard dog, shot gun and antibiotic all in one against malware, hacking and ransomware. This is fully managed so that you can get on with your business and leave the protection to us. When a threat is encountered, Depositit C360 neutralizes it, makes sure your machine remains healthy and safe and then sends you a report for compliance records.
With your machine fully safeguarded with C360, Depositit Backup protect all required folders, files and databases. It runs automatically for you in the background and each day saves new or updated versions of files while retaining previous versions. We’ll send you a Backup notification every day, check and alert you to any files that may have failed to backup and securely store your data away from the computer relieving you of this chore.
You can easily restore one or all your files whenever you need to the same or new machine in the event of a disaster.
SUMMARY:
If you run manual local backups to an external USB drive and want to be absolutely certain you can recover historic file versions, deleted, lost, over-written or corrupt files at any time, here are THINGS TO CONSIDER:
Make it a habit (it’s a manual process and you will need to plan this every day).
Check what you’ve saved and then extract the device and store it safely offsite (leaving it connected to the PC or in your draw is not safe).
Rotate at least 5 separate USB drives so that you are not overwriting each one each day.
Connect them frequently to other machines to check they are in good working order (these drives are prone to wear & tear).
Bear in mind that each time you copy/paste it will overwrite previous versions of the same file (unless you specifically save the newer version under a different name or rotate multiple USB drives).
Run periodic test restores to ensure all files and previous versions of files are available on the drive (never wait for a real live disaster to occur to test your backup system).
These devices do not have a checking mechanism, nor will they alert if one or more files failed to copy across.
Some files and databases on your computer are related to specific software, and their paths are not within your regular ‘Documents’ or ‘Desktop’ folders. These may go un-backed-up if you do not contact the software vendor or confirm exactly where these reside and if they can even be copied/pasted. Some programs work off a SQL backbone which locks the databases so that they cannot be tampered with or easily backed up.
Remember to encrypt your devices.
If you use Depositit BACKUP and Depositit C360 everything runs automatically, offers far more security and you also have full technical support and advice on hand.