Tips for Preventing Data Loss

Written by Sam Bowman

There is nothing worse than working hard on a project for hours, days, weeks, and months, only to have all your hard work destroyed in an instant. With the click of the wrong button, the ill-fated spill of a hot coffee all over your laptop, or the crashing of a malfunctioning computer, the failure to properly backup your data can flush down hours of time and money down the drain.

Fortunately, with some planning and the help of the right technology, you can prevent such catastrophic data loss and protect your files from getting accidentally deleted. Here’s how to make sure your computer or smart device is properly backed up.

Key Mistakes That Lead to Data Loss

According to the Data Health Check report, human error causes one-fifth of data loss errors. The report found that larger companies have a greater percentage of human error, with 22 percent of data loss caused by human error, compared to 6 percent for small companies. However, 41 percent of small companies didn’t even have a business continuity plan, and 35 percent don’t test their disaster recovery systems due to lack of time.

Data recovery experts at Ontrack identified three key mistakes can result in the permanent loss of data:

• Lack of employee time
• Slow acting after data loss
• Out-of-date data storage systems and processes
  

For example, busy employees in a company can hurry through the proper document saving procedures and processes. When an employee is too busy to save and backup important information and documents, it can make it impossible to recover them if they are lost. For this reason, displeased and laidback employees can pose a threat to the company’s data security, as they won’t take these procedures seriously.

Additionally, following the right procedure can greatly increase the chances of recovering lost data. However, this is often ignored since shutting down the server essentially means shutting down the business for a day. Ontrack explains why losing a few hours of productivity can be worth it in the end:

If the server continues to be used, important areas on the server that are necessary for the recovery of the lost data are overwritten. This can cause irreversible data loss. Companies should therefore not shy away from the financial expense of installing sufficient manpower, replacement servers and backups.

While data saving processes can feel time consuming, making sure all employees follow the right procedures can prevent a data loss catastrophe in the future.

Protecting Your Information

Once you’re aware of the biggest issues that can endanger your information, you can work on implementing new procedures to avoid data loss. To start, you can address the previous grievances by incorporating the following tips into your business routine:

• Make sure there is enough time for employees to back up data.
• Never keep working on an affected server if you will need to recover data from it.
• Evaluate backup processes, make sure they are up to date and that employees are using them.
• Come up with back up processes and train all employees to have an emergency plan in case of data loss
  

Next, it is important to educate all employees in the company about simple things, like knowing the difference between cybersecurity and network security, and addressing the dangers of hard-copy documents getting stolen. While laws require businesses to hold on to some documents for years, storing such files can be tricky, even when keeping printed copies.

You can protect your company against data fraud in theft by creating a sound document management plan.

This can be done in just a few steps:

• Conduct a full inventory of all company documents.
• Assign a manager to overlook the process.
• Create a retention and destruction protocol.
• Determine whether paper or electronic storage is the best for your business.
• Create a disaster plan for emergency recovery.
  

Making sure all employees know and incorporate best practices for data security in their work will greatly help to prevent data loss. Additionally, you should make sure all employees are trained and are actively following these procedures. Failure for even one employee to follow the procedure can endanger the whole company’s data protection.

Since technology grows and expands at such a rapid rate, it’s important to not only evaluate your own procedures, but to keep up with current security and risk assessment trends. For example, in 2019, good practices to adopt to increase cloud security include detailed security questions and providing staff with the necessary workshops to keep their data security knowledge up to date.

By upping your security game and taking a few extra moments every day to ensure the safety of your files, you can avoid data security disasters for the future. Implementing a few simple steps into your workers’ routines is well worth the safety and security of your company’s information and sensitive data.

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About the Author

Sam Bowman is a freelance writer and techie who enjoys getting to utilize the internet for community without actually having to leave his house. In his spare time he likes running, reading, and combining the two in a run to his local bookstore. 

Credit Image Source : Pixabay