According to research, almost one
million businesses in the UK are at risk of losing company data because they do
not back it up. A further 2.8 million risk losing valuable information because
they are storing back-up copies in the same location as the original data. This
is according to Beaming, a business internet service provider.
Beaming’s survey reveals that 83
per cent of UK firms do back up their data, however half of these save it on
storage devices or servers that are on the same premises as the source data,
rendering them at serious risk should there be a malware attack or theft or
loss of data.
Just as much of concern is that
the remaining 17 per cent of businesses surveyed don’t make back-ups at all.
The survey reports that of all company types, micro companies and sole traders
are least likely to back up their data.
Old School Back-Up Routines
Some small and medium sized
businesses are still asking personnel to take physical back-ups home with them,
and around a third of large and medium sized organisations copy data to their
own servers.
Only 35 per cent of UK businesses
are said to store their back-up data off the premises, and 13 per cent of micro
businesses and 15 per cent of sole traders use a cloud storage service such as
Google or Microsoft as their back-up system.
The recommendation by business
continuity experts is that back-ups are made to data storage facilities a
minimum of 30 miles from the company premises in order to reduce the risks
posed by natural disasters. A lot of businesses however that follow this
guidance use cloud storage, and have not bothered to find out exactly where
their data is held.
Time to Think Seriously About Data Storage
Sonia Blizzard is managing
director of Beaming, the company behind the survey. She says that a lot of
businesses, especially the smaller ones, are not doing enough to protect their
sensitive data.
She says, ‘The introduction of
GDPR has highlighted the need for secure and resilient data storage in order to
mitigate the risk of significant data loss.’
‘We’d encourage businesses to
think seriously about private cloud or co-location services when it comes to
storing highly sensitive data or mission critical applications. These should
only be accessed through the most secure forms of connectivity.’
It is vital to think about how
your business would function should a loss of data occur. It is also crucial to
be aware of the fines that can now be levied under GDPR following a data breach.
If you are unsure as to the
integrity of your data storage and back-up methods, you should take advice from
an IT security expert without delay.
Research source: http://smallbusiness.co.uk/company-data-safety-store-2544068/
