Stay safe and stay open.

A FEMA study showed that 40% of businesses that suffer major data loss never reopen. And for those that make it past the first year, the odds actually increase into the second. It can be as bad as having a fire in your store. These statistics are staggering at best, and we feel they are important enough to talk about regularly, especially since our role is to help you stay in business. These are some of the most important reasons that data backups should not be overlooked.

Technology Fails

No matter how cutting edge, AI-enhanced, or fool-proof new technology claims to be, it will always at some point fail. Every machine and software version has an end of life that needs to be considered. Beyond this simple fact, there are also manufacturer defects, power surges, and software bugs that can unpredictably arise. All of these are out of your control, but they can be accounted for as you create a data security plan.

Companies that have tunnel-vision on the present, opting for an “it works now” mentality, will soon find themselves interrupted by small emergencies instead of clicking a few buttons to get them back up and running as thought nothing happened. Make sure you keep in mind the hard truth about any technology you own: It’s bound to fail.

People Make (sometimes big!) Mistakes

Even the best employees who are innately proficient at all things technological make mistakes. And even an employee who has little to no interaction with technology can still bring a machine down. Coffee spills, laptop bag breaks, disgruntled employee backlash, and a hundred other accidents happen every day. The most unpredictable yet dangerous of all is the dreaded wrong click. As workers go about their day, trying to do their jobs as efficiently and productively as possible, they inevitably encounter malicious bait that’s designed to trick them into clicking on a link or handing over information. And sometimes these well-meaning workers do just that. They’re only human.

Companies that don’t train their employees on security risk signals can wind up with data held hostage for money or customer credit card numbers online. Even though you can’t guard against human error 100% of the time, taking steps to help minimize risk and enabling backups can help keep you on a secure path.

Keeping Up with (and maybe outpacing) Your Competition

The news is getting better and better at informing the public when a large company leaked private data. Now since people are more informed, they are making wiser decisions about who they do business with and why they need to spend money. This brings your company’s security reputation into play, and this goes doubly so for company’s who are in the B2B sector. To keep a competitive edge, many businesses who have a solid data backup and security plan are informing their prospects early in the sales cycle. Explaining that procedures are in place to safeguard their privacy can add peace of mind as new relationships are building.

Companies who don’t discuss privacy at some point with their customers—whether be as a small blurb on their website or as a slide in their sales presentation—will lose opportunities to competitors who start the conversation. Stay competitive and let your customers know that your head is not in the sand when it comes to their data’s safety.

Staying Compliant

The IRS requires that you keep receipts for deductible expenses and other financial statements to prove responsible practices. States may have other rules, and there may be other regulations on archiving. The IRS audits at will and demands documentation, so if your data is lost due to fire, coffee spills, machine crashes or any other reason mentioned in this article, then there will be hefty fines to pay. Not to mention countless hours of labor scrambling to locate and justify the data.

Companies that assume they are too small for an audit or that boxes of files under lock and key will cover them may find a big surprise waiting. Make sure you don’t lose thousands of dollars in fines and labor simply because you think you’re “too small.” Trust us, there’s no such company.

Mother Nature

Mother Nature is the mother of all curve ball-throwers. Take the COVID pandemic for instance. While the virus was not the kind that wiped out terabytes of data, it still created completely unforeseeable issues for business operations. This is a perfect example of how we are unable to predict natural disasters. Earthquakes, extreme heat, mass flooding, freak collisions, electrical fires, and way more than can be listed here are all possible and they happen every day. And if you have employees that work remote even part time, the possibilities multiply.

Companies that think their data is safest in one physical spot are fooling themselves. Storing regular backups creates georedundancy, but even storing at more than one physical location creates a more solid boundary between you and disaster created by a disaster.

Theft

These are not facts that we enjoy sharing, but corporate theft is on the rise. People can be led by emotions and self-preservation. Biscom found that 85% of employees have admitted to taking information and company documents that they created. 30% admitted that they took company information and documents that they didn’t create. If employees were fired or laid off, 20% said they would be more likely to take data due to the anger they’re experiencing. They also said they would be more likely to pass it off to a competitor.

No matter how agreeable the dissolution of employment is, there is always room for self-justification for an employee who is focusing on their own future. Like natural disasters, these possibilities shouldn’t be ignored simply because they aren’t likely. Having backups of everything that your employees produce will ensure that if they walk out the door with some of them, they’re not leaving with the only copies. This can give you ammunition if you find that your competitors are suddenly promoting intellectual property.

It All Comes Down to the Right Backup Strategy

Help Desk Cavalry is 100% committed to data security. Even though no security is completely fool proof, we employ state of the art processes and time-test best practices to ensure our clients have the right security model to keep them as secure as possible.

• Regular Backups: Whether you choose cloud backups or physical backups, we ensure that they are successfully completed at a regular cadence. This means that your data is always being refreshed with the most recent versions of information and documentation.
• In-Transit Encryption: Backup data should be encrypted when in transit, otherwise hackers can snoop on data. A smart encryption plan is key to overall data protection across your network.
• Testing Backups: We ensure that the integrity of your data backup is always upheld. The last thing you want is to restore your network with a backup that has data corruption problems or other issues.
• 24/7 Support: When your network goes down or you experience a crash, we are immediately available to support, install your backups, and get you back up and running with minimal downtime.

As a Help Desk Cavalry client, you receive all these services continuously (in fact, you’re probably getting some of them right now). If you’re not yet a client and you’re interested in how we can make sure your company has the best security model in place, just contact us at [email protected]. We can easily walk through a plan that works for you.