Last line of defence

We set up our backup years ago. We’re covered.

I hear this sort of thing from so many businesses. Unfortunately, backup isn’t the type of thing you can just set and forget about. If your company finds itself compromised by a serious event like cyber-attack or an employee makes an innocent mistake, often your backup is the last line of defence.

But what happens if the data being backed up is corrupt or out of date?

The only way to ensure you’re protected is ongoing monitoring and restore testing of the data.

Two recent examples:

A company we know had their data being stored on a couple of USB drives which were being rotated and taken offsite by staff as part of good business practice. For over a year we had been telling them this manual process was flawed. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen to us. A staff member made an innocent mistake and wiped critical financial records. When they went to the backup, they realised the USB drive had not been rotated for over 6 months. This cost them valuable time and a significant of financial resource to re-enter manually. Moreover, not all the information was able to be sourced and their business reputation was tarnished.

Another company who had put in place multiple levels of backup protection were hit by a serious crypto virus locking staff out of all files. Forty plus people unable to access any company data. They were able to resume business the same day.

Two scenarios – two very different outcomes.

So, you have to understand the value of your data and what it means to your business. Constantly test the validity of your data. Constantly test the process of restoring your data. Make sure your last line of defence is really there. PROTECT yourself.