If you have any sensitive, valuable, or irreplaceable data that is not currently backed up, stop right now and do so…..unless you’re reading this article for some information on how to backup your data, and in that case, read on.
Most recently in June of 2021, Western Digital My Book NAS users woke up to a horrifying revelation. ALL of their data, and in some cases their backup data, was gone. It wasn’t just missing, or renamed, or hidden, it was GONE!
The Western Digital My Book NAS devices have not received any security updates in many years, and WD has made this fact known to owners. There have actually been similar incidents in the past with these devices, and unfortunately users have not been diligent in migrating to a new platform to ensure the safety of their digital data. Malware has been blamed for this most recent incident where My Book devices were open and accessible to the Internet, which reenforces the need for everyone to have not only proper backups, but to also utilize a secure solution.
What is a proper backup?
Well, that’s a loaded question with a lot to unpack. The short answer is that it depends on what kind of data you are backing up. If you’ve got some documents and pictures you want to ensure are always available, copying them to a USB flash drive and putting that drive into a safe location, may be all you need to do. If you have a small business with a server that contains all your client details and your business financial records, you should be doing a daily local and offsite backup. The more important the data is to your daily life, the better the backup solution should be.
If you need to be cost conscious about your backup solution, there are some simple options available. As mentioned, if you have a few files and pictures to protect, you can utilize a USB flash drive. As you need to add more files to the drive, you can retrieve it from your safe location, copy over the files, and then store the flash drive again. While this is a pretty simple solution, it is not a scalable solution. If you are updating and adding files to the flash drive on a regular basis, you may want to consider a more automated solution.
What kinds of backups are there?
Generally speaking, there are two main types of backups. The simpler of the two is referred to as a File/Folder based backup. This backup method only backs up Files and Folders (clever name huh) that are specified in the backup job. If any new files are created in a new folder that isn’t listed in the job, they will not be backed up unless the backup job is edited to include the new folder. This is a great way to ensure that specific folders are regularly backed up and protected. The other type of backup is called an Image based backup, and is the preferred backup type for mission critical servers. An image based backup is essentially a snapshot of the entire server or system. It literally backs up EVERY file on the data drive without having to specify them. Whenever a new file is created, it gets backed up the next time the job runs. The primary benefit of an Image based backup is if your computer crashes, you can restore your entire system without having to reinstall anything. By comparison, if you have a File/Folder backup of your PC data and the hard drive fails, you would need to reinstall Windows, all of your applications, and then restore your data. This can end up taking hours, potentially cost a fortune, and is the biggest reason to go with an Image based backup. If you’re a small business and don’t have a server but all your business work is saved on your PC, you can still setup an Image based backup for data protection. One thing to be aware of though, is that an Image based backup will require much more space to backup an entire system as compared to a File/Folder backup.
What’s the difference between a Local and Off-Site backup?
Local backups are copies of your data that are stored locally, with the original data, in the same physical location. For example, if I backup my laptop (File/Folder or Image based) to a USB hard drive, and then I keep that hard drive in my house with my laptop, that’s considered a Local backup. If I were to take that USB hard drive to another physical location (like a friends place), it’s then considered an Off-Site backup. If I were to backup my laptop to two USB hard drives, kept one at home, and left the second at a friends place, I then have both a Local and Off-Site backup.
Why do I need an Off-Site backup?
This is also a loaded question, and again the short answer is that it depends on what kind of data you are backing up. The benefit of an Off-Site backup is to ensure that if everything possible could go wrong at your local site, you still have a copy of your data to keep you and/or your business going.
Let’s say you’ve been a rockstar and have regularly created local backups for your laptop, keeping the backup drive in your office filing cabinet. One day you go out to grab some groceries and run a few errands. While you’re out, the neighbours house catches on fire, spreads to yours and destroys everything, including your laptop and USB backup drive. Now this is a very extreme example, but your data (and potentially whole life) is now gone as a result. If you had made another copy of your data and stored it at a friends place, you could restore everything to a new laptop and be back up and running.
I’ve got OneDrive/iCloud Drive. The Cloud is Off-Site, right?
Sort of. OneDrive and iCloud Drive are a file synchronization service, as opposed to a typical backup solution. Both services keep your documents synchronized between your connected devices, as well as give you access to a cloud copy of your data in a pinch by using a web browser. There are some limitations in the amount of data you can synchronize, you need an active Internet connection for the synchronization to work, and if you have a large file that was just updated with a slow Internet connection, it could take some time before your other devices are updated. Having said that, if you have either of these services available to you, start utilizing them right away. A single external copy of your data is better than having none at all.
This is great information, but I still don’t know where to start.
There’s a lot to consider, especially when your data is critical to your businesses operation, and you don’t have an existing backup. There’s no time better than the present to get a backup going and keep your data safe. Please contact us at 587-206-0206 or email hello@inoventive.ca. We’re more than happy to answer questions, and provide assistance.
