Backing up to an internal hard drive that is always connected to your business’s system is a crucial first step in protecting company data. Offsite backups are also a substantially important part of a backup solution because of the added level of protection against disasters. Offsite backups are typically USB external hard drives that are rotated out daily so someone has a latest copy of the data away from the office. This helps protect your business’s data against natural disasters like hurricanes, fires, floods, etc.
Rotating or switching the set of USB drives used for offsite backups is just as vital, as it ensures there is a latest and up-to-date backup offsite at all times. Some clients forget to switch the offsite USB drives and end up having data backups that are months old that would be of no value to them in the event of recovery. With hurricane season quickly approaching, we are urging our clients to be in the habit of daily switching the set of offsite USB drives. Our backup monitoring, as part of our managed services, ensures someone is tracking not only the status of the backups, but the rotation of the offsite drives. Offsite backups with a current disaster recovery plan can help businesses in the event of any disaster.
Natural disasters are not the only technological disaster that a business can be vulnerable to. If you noticed in last month’s ‘Technology Corner’, two articles highlighted ransomware. Ransomware has become the biggest cyber security threat to businesses. This type of virus encrypts a computer’s data, and a hacker holds it hostage until a certain ransom is paid via bitcoin. Hospitals and medical offices are especially targeted by hackers because of sensitive patient information they store. If your offsite backups aren’t switched frequently, you take the risk of having them being infected by malicious malware and losing days, or even weeks of data. We have seen the ransom be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousands. Either you pay the costly ransom to get your data back, or we can destroy the virus and use your backups to replace the encrypted files.
If you want to learn more about backups for your home computer or business office, talk to one of our expert technicians! Computer Experts is one of the oldest locally owned onsite and residential IT service providers in Brevard County. Established in 1990, Computer Experts provides its customers with a total solution for all their IT needs with just one call. Visit Computer Experts at 1500 Palm Bay Rd., Palm Bay FL or call today at 321-726-5977. We are “Full-time IT without the full-time price!”
