Businesses in Hertfordshire have been warned to triple check their data backups before shutting the office for Christmas.
Any break in usual routine – such as the festive holiday – is a prime time for data to be lost or stolen, according to a local IT expert, Darren Billinghurst.
And more than half of companies that lose a significant amount of their data go out of business within 6 months.
“You’d be surprised how many business owners think their data is being backed up correctly, but actually it isn’t,” said local IT expert Darren Billinghurst owner of IT support firm Konnetix.
“Automated backups can become corrupted, or just stop for all sorts of reasons. That’s a real problem when you lose data, and discover your backup is weeks out of date.”
He added: “Most businesses are so reliant on data these days, it creates a massive series of problems that put the business at real risk. It never has a chance to get back to where it was and operate normally.”
Darren has identified the 6 most common reasons for data loss by Hertfordshire businesses:
- Human error: Accidentally deleting files
- Viruses, malware and hacking
- Mechanical failure, such as a hard drive dying
- A power cut, causing the computer not to shut down properly
- Theft of devices
- Physical damage from fire or water
Darren said: “Roughly half of all businesses we support need to restore data at some point during the year. So this is a great time to check your data is being fully 100% backed up, every single day.
“Having multiple copies of data safely encrypted and stored away from your premises, is the safest way to ensure that losing a computer is a minor pain, and not a business-ending event.”
If you are concerned with data loss or do not have a disaster recovery plan then please call Konnetix on 0800 999 3365 or get in touch with us at hello@konnetix.com.