How to Protect your Small Business Data

Backing up your business data is vitally important.  Only keeping data on your computer can be a big mistake.  Programs on your computer can be reinstalled but if you lose all your correspondence, documents and transaction details then your business could be seriously compromised.  Having paper copies is not the answer.  If there is a catastrophe such as a flood or fire, then again, your data could be lost. 

If losing your data will seriously affect your business, then you need to set up a more reliable back-up system.  Your business data should be backed up regularly, should be saved on reliable media or in the cloud, and should be kept in a secure off-site location.

Backing up or Archiving your Data

Your data should be backed up for the short term, but data that is no longer in regular use should be archived.  This includes everything from emails to accounting information.  A good reason to use cloud-computing in your business is that you can retrieve your information should something happen to your desktop computer.  

However, cloud services can still be hacked or sabotaged which can cause a loss of data, so it is a good idea to save it to a storage device such as a USB drive or an external hard drive.  Once you have identified the data to be archived you can install a backup software program that will do that for you on a regular basis.

Once again, do not leave these backups on site unless you have a fire-proof safe, they need to be stored elsewhere.  Some businesses will store their backups in a security box at a bank and others at the homes of different friends and family members.   

If you have a local area network, you can back up files to another computer or server, but it should be in a different location that is secure.  If you want to back up a lot of information for long term storage, then tape backups can be the best option as they are reliable and can store huge amounts of data.

Most importantly make sure that you use strong passwords to protect your data and change them regularly.   For extra security make sure that the backup files are encrypted.  If you use cloud storage this is done for you.