Tomorrow – March 31 – is World Backup Day, a day created to correct the alarming trend that many people don’t protect and backup the personal data and files stored on their computer.
In the past 25 years the amount of personal data has grown one million times and has become more valuable than the device itself.
But according to a survey conducted by backup software company Acronis, more than 50 per cent don’t actually backup their data at all while only one third protect their entire computer system instead of just selected files.
“These numbers are worrying because the ramifications of losing data can be far more devastating and wide-reaching than simply losing a device,” said Lincoln Goldsmith, Acronis General Manager ANZ.
“Theft is not the only concern; there are plenty of other ways to lose your data and once it’s gone, it’s gone, unless it’s backed up.”
A proper backup is considered to be another copy of all of your important files on a separate external hard drive or in the cloud.
It needs to be saved outside your computer to keep it safe in the event your computer is lost, stolen, hardware failure, software or upgrade errors or if the computer is destroyed.
World Backup Day was created to help increase awareness around the importance of backing up your data including the information on our mobile devices as well.
Internet security company Trend Micro conducted a study recently and found only 22 per cent of Australians feared losing the information stored on their devices.
Our smartphones store personal contact details, our address book along with personal photos and videos, passwords and even work-related documents.
Losing this type of information either by accident or theft means the user can face issues as drastic as identity theft and online fraud.
To make an effective backup it is as simple as connecting an external hard drive to your PC or Mac – both of which can be set to backup automatically at designated times.
The other option for mobile devices and PCs is to invest a cloud backup service.
“There are easy and inexpensive ways to safeguard the digital data that people don’t want to lose, like photographs and videos. World Backup Day serves as a great reminder to protect your data but there’s no need to wait until then,” Acronis’s Lincoln Goldsmith says.
“Consider setting up automatic backups or reminders for your computer, smartphone and tablet.
“Regular backups will give you peace of mind and ensure that, if your device is lost or your hard drive crashes, then you can still retrieve your data.”
