How Important Are Backups and How Should You Approach Data Backup?

We asked cybersecurity specialist Erik Karlsson at Secify for his advice on the best ways to back up your data. 

– A backup is your “last resort,” your guarantee. It’s what you rely on when things go missing, are attacked, or break down. How important a backup is for you largely depends on your business. For most, it’s absolutely critical. To determine how vital it is for your specific operations, ask yourself what would happen if everything was gone—how long could your business survive without the data you currently have? Most often, people conclude that backups are essential for their business.

So, if you conclude that backups are necessary for your business, how frequently should you create a backup?

– That’s the next step, and it also entirely depends on the business. For example, if you run a candy store and lose a day’s worth of data, the impact might not be too significant. However, if you operate an online business with a hundred orders per day, there’s a high risk of losing all the orders placed that day. So, how frequently you should create a backup varies greatly between businesses. The question to ask yourself is: what happens if you experience an incident and lose an hour, a day, or even a week of ongoing data?

– You also shouldn’t forget the time and effort involved in restoring data, as well as the time and revenue lost while operations are down. Another aspect to consider is how your customers will be affected. Will you end up with frustrated customers, negative PR, or even bad reviews?

How do you create a backup in the simplest way?

– There are both simple and advanced backup solutions available. To determine which solution works best, you need to start by mapping out what you have and identifying what is most important for your business. Often, a single solution isn’t sufficient. Many organizations have multiple systems, databases, and platforms that need to be backed up, which means combining different solutions may be necessary.

Should you test your backups?

– Absolutely, it’s crucial to ensure not only that backups are created, but also that they can be restored and the data recovered successfully. Just because the backups are made doesn’t necessarily mean they will work.

– It’s also important to set up an environment where you can test your backups to ensure they actually work and are not corrupted. If something unexpected happens, the last thing you want is to overwrite your system with a corrupted backup.

– It’s also essential to have a recovery plan, commonly referred to as a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan. By having such a plan and testing it regularly, you can determine how long it will take to restore everything. Unfortunately, very few businesses create such a plan, which increases the risk of overlooking a system that actually needed to be backed up or underestimating the time required for recovery.

This type of plan is something every organization should develop, as it also allows you to calculate the financial losses your company might face while operations are being restored.