A company’s data is now considered one of its most valuable assets, so it should make sense to do everything possible to protect it. Data loss also includes losses in productivity and data restoration costs. Operating systems, software, and even hardware can be replaced, but data is not so easily recoverable or replaceable.  Data integrity is a must for businesses of all sizes.

Just as a business owner will purchase insurance to protect their physical business assets, a backup acts as “insurance” against data loss incidents. Backing up ensures that data is easily recoverable and operations aren’t affected as much.

Backup best-practices:

• Maintain at least 3 copies in different formats such as physical media and cloud
• Backups should be encrypted to ensure only authorized users can access it
• At least one backup should be kept offsite and off-network
• If time for full-backup becomes an issue, consider prioritizing the most important data and data that has changed

Maintain security patches. Staying updated on your security hardware and software is crucial to ensuring that its working at its highest performance capability. Automatic updating keeps your system working with the most current anti-malware and antivirus signatures

Secure all aspects of your business including:

• Using spam filter on email
• Ensure firewalls and anti-virus software is maintained and up-to-date
• SSL security on company website
• Reviewing access control and roles for all employees and who can access what
• Remove outdated and unused software from servers and users machines.

Other tips:

• Be sure to securely wipe old devices of data. If a device or hard drive is damage, make sure the data on it can never be accessed.
• Test your back up and security processes to make sure they are doing their intended purpose. Test the recovery data process to make sure data can be restored properly in a timely manner.

Just as with your personal health, prevention today will save you and your company a lot of time and money should there be a security breach. Consult a professional if necessary.

WDS products are built with security and data loss prevention at the heart of the system. Whether our systems are deployed onsite or on the cloud, we can provide guidance and direction to protect the integrity of your data. Contact us today to see how we can help your company.