5 Tips That Will Ensure You Will Never Lose Important Files

Running a business and keeping track of your important documents are essential to your growth. Usually, you can’t afford to lose data, especially if it plays a role in running your business.

The web has made information accessible. And maybe even too accessible when we look at the hackers. Companies are facing more cyberattacks than ever before. But cyberattacks are just one of the reasons businesses may lose their documents.

You may encounter a hard drive failure at any time, even in the middle of a busy working day, so you need a backup plan for every possible scenario. We’ve gathered the best tips to follow that will keep your data safe and available anytime.

1. Cybersecurity Training

The first step is to initiate cybersecurity training for your employees. It would be best if you had the funds to pay a professional for the training. Making it on your own or with the help of an IT employee (if you have an IT department) is still better than no training, though.

All company members must be familiar with phishing attacks. They’re simple to avoid, yet many companies fall for them. It’s the easiest way for hackers to penetrate your system with a computer virus – all it takes is a single click on a link. Within minutes, your whole system can get infected and encrypted. Major companies have paid millions for ransomware decryption keys. Not everyone can afford such losses.

2. Use Secure Cloud Storage Platforms

Keeping your business files and documents safe in someone else’s hands may sound counterintuitive. Why would someone else do all the work to keep your data safe? That’s how they earn! Many businesses use cloud storage providers that focus on security and usability so that you can get back to growing your business.

Cloud storage sounds simple, but you must ensure that you’re picking the right provider and encryption. The storage should be easily accessible if your company needs those documents frequently. But if you’re looking to store your business data as securely as possible, you can opt for zero-knowledge encryption cloud storage.

Zero-knowledge encryption has a public and private key, both are required to view the data. If your whole company has access to the public key, they won’t be able to use the data. The private key must be kept safe and not shared, but here comes the accessibility issue.

Cloud storage is relatively inexpensive, and any business can afford it. Pricing starts from just a few dollars a month. And you may even use the free version. If you’re going to store documents and files that don’t take up much space, the free version may be just enough for your business.

3. Create Frequent Backups

Backing up files for the worst-case scenario is always a good idea. Whenever you edit data or create a new important document, do a backup and have an additional copy. You can store those copies on the cloud and let everyone access them within a minute.

Additionally, most cloud providers have an automatic sync option. You can set this sync daily, weekly, and monthly. This will ensure that your data will automatically be uploaded to the cloud whenever you make changes or create new documents.

4. Have Offline Copies

Making old-school offline copies on hard drives is one of the best options. Your data will remain safe as long as the hard drives don’t get damaged. If you have enough spare funds, you can purchase hard drives and store your data offline to avoid trouble even in case of cyberattacks.

Of course, you should prioritize cloud storage providers, but having an extra offline copy of your important files can save you in the worst-case scenario.

5. Encrypt Business Technology

If you’ve been in business long enough, you may have handed your employees at least a few laptops and mobile devices. Make sure to encrypt those devices and keep track of their activity. You must know whenever there is a breach.

The encryption won’t save the device from a virus, though. It will only keep your data on the device encrypted. People who don’t have the decryption key won’t be able to access it, even if they have the documents on their devices. This encryption isn’t helpful for all types of businesses, though – large businesses will benefit from it more.

And if your devices are running on Linux, then you might want to check out this complete encryption guide that we have recently posted.

Conclusion

Whether you’re just starting a business, or you’ve been in it for many years, following these tips will help prevent losing essential files. Measures such as utilizing cloud storage or having offline copies have been proven to be good practices for companies to ensure data protection.