With cybercrime so quickly on the rise, data backup and recovery measures have become a priority for many companies, not only for large corporations, but for small businesses as well. Having printed copies of corporate data is no longer a viable solution, so here are some things to know about data loss and some of the advanced and common methods to ensure the security of the digital data.

Common Forms of Data Loss

Digitally stored data is exposed to many threats: digital equipment can sustain damage because of an accidental power cut or power surge; ill-intended attackers can try to break into corporate systems using various types of viruses, malware and ransomware. Computers can also malfunction without being attacked, problems that can lead to the loss of the data stored on the malfunctioning computer.

Measures to Prevent Data Loss and to Ward Off Attacks

Adequate data protection systems usually employ a combination of physical devices and software solutions. The best way to prevent any damage caused by fluctuating tension, power cuts and power surges is by using surge protector devices and with uninterruptible power supplies that will keep supplying your computers with current for some time after a power cut to give you enough time to shut down your devices correctly.

Another way to ensure data protection is by regularly backing up your vital corporate data or hiring an IT consulting Denver firm’s services to protect your business. The frequency of running the backup procedure depends on the data volume generated by your operations – if that volume is high, you should step up the frequency of running backups. Ideally you should store your data in multiple storage places, including physical devices, such as external hard disks as well as cloud-based storage. The physical media that you use for creating backups should be stored at a safe, off-site location that only your most trusted employees have access to.

You should also implement adequate measures to protect your system from attacks. The best way is to keep your anti-virus software updated at all time and to implement professional methods, such as advanced firewalls.

The Importance of Turning to Professionals

There are essentially two ways that small companies can ensure that their companies are backed up and their data can be recovered in case of a catastrophic event: they can either have an in-house expert or a team to handle all the tasks related to the process or they can outsource the process to a specialized company. The decision to choose one of the options over the other is usually informed by financial considerations: having a highly-qualified in-house team or a specialist is often much more expensive that working with an external company, even more so as the software and hardware needed for the process are very expensive. Turning to a specialized company for recovery and data backup services usually comes with a significant amount of convenience as well – the subscriptions and plans offered by these companies are affordable, easy to implement and they usually provide access to state-of-the-art technology that would otherwise be out of reach for many small companies.