The amount of professional and private data in IT is constantly increasing. With so much data, however, there is also the risk that it is lost in whole or in part. If they are lost, the consequences can be painful: If the calendar and the contact list are gone, daily organization becomes problematic. If you lose your digital music collection, there can be high costs associated with recovering it. Particularly sad is the loss of digital mementos such as photos or videos. It is best to avoid data loss and back up your private data regularly. Like? Learn more in this article.
Not only a broken hard disk can cause data loss. If smartphones, tablets or notebooks are damaged, there is also a risk of losing data. In addition, the theft of devices such as smartphones, a house fire, a flood and other disasters have the potential to destroy devices, data carriers, paper copies and all backups in one fell swoop and for all time.
With data storage do not panic about data loss
Multiple backups pay off
To ensure that all or at least the most important data can be recovered in the event of a loss, it makes sense to a backup copy not only locally but in another well protected place. Privately, storage in a safe deposit box or with friends or family members is a good option. The data carriers can be exchanged with each other and you can bring an up-to-date backup with you on every visit. This is how the data is backed up several times – on your own device, the local and the external backup.
In addition, it makes sense to give the Storage medium for the Backup Device like a smartphone, tablet, notebook including charging cable to be attached. Then you can quickly access the data again after a notebook theft – without having to rely on the opening hours of the electronics store.
Another important point is the store the data media. Good conditions should prevail with the climate and the access possibilities. A cold garage in winter or a hot attic in summer are not suitable places for storage. If you store the data medium in the cellar, make sure that it is dry and that the storage location is neither near the ground nor under a water-bearing pipe. When storing in the living area, the cabinet in the bedroom or study is better suited than the one in the living room or hallway. In less busy areas, there is less risk of unauthorized people accidentally accessing the storage media.
The Encryption of the Backups protects against misuse of the data in the event of theft. It is best to include an unencrypted copy of the software in the current version, which is required for decryption, with the encrypted archive. If you use a password safe, it is best to back it up separately.
5 ways to store data securely
Hard to imagine, but true: The first graphic files were created more than 40 years ago.000 years as painted cave paintings. The desire to record information sustainably is therefore not new. But how do you keep data safe? Which media are best for storing information over the long term?
The practice offers 5 common methods:
- Magnetic storage (z. B. disk)
- Optical storage (z. B. CD)
- Magneto-optical data storage (MO disk)
- Electronic data storage (z. B. SSD memory cards)
- Cloud
Regularly use new data carriers
The form of data media and the type of storage are constantly evolving. It is important not to forget a backup once it has been created, but the Data and To regularly update the storage media to the current status. If you keep an eye on the amount of data and the available transfer speed, you can avoid the time required to create the backup being greater than the interval at which the backup is to be created. data media with an up-to-date interface (z. B. The latest USB version) or other modern technology can be used for this purpose. For example, SSD cards with storage sizes suitable for backups have become affordable and they are much faster than traditional external hard drives. They are also more durable. While you have to transfer the data on an external hard drive to a new medium after about five years, the lifespan of an SSD card is about ten years – depending on how often it is written to.
Data backups to automate, only at first sight it seems to be more time-consuming than performing it manually. In the long run, the one-time extra effort is worth it, because an automatic backup cannot be forgotten or postponed. Software support is provided by the latest versions of Windows, MacOS, and many of the most popular Linux distributions, as well as iOS and Android. One can designate the data medium to the software as a storage location for the backup. Backups are made at the desired frequency or the system issues a warning if the card is not plugged into the computer.
Another worthwhile effort is a Restore test. Here a data loss is simulated and one goes through all steps of the backup process once. This checks whether the backup can be restored without errors.
Efficient and simple: the cloud
In addition to storage options on local media, there is an effective alternative for backup: the cloud. The data is transferred to an external service provider and kept by them. The big advantage is that the data is available via the Internet regardless of location and time. In addition, the provider itself stores them once more, so that they are doubly secured against threats and attacks. Here, it pays to choose a professional provider that keeps data secure and EU-DSGVO-compliant. The storage costs are manageable with a cloud service provider – especially compared to the costs of purchasing and regularly replacing your own data media.
Many service providers offer services that can be used to create an automatic backup after the software has been set up once. The scope of supply often includes other functions such as automatic deletion of old backups to free up storage space, encryption of data to increase security or its compression to save storage resources.
You can read more exciting articles about private data backup here:
Protection of confidential data by encrypting hard disks
The encryption of hard disks is immensely important and how this is best done for Windows, Mac and Linux can be read in our article.
Encryption of removable media: the USB stick in focus
Why the encryption of USB sticks is important and with which programs this can be done best, you can read in our article.
Lars Wagner is in the field of information security management& Compliance at Adacor Hosting. His focus is on the adherence to framework conditions as well as IT security and compliance requirements.