It’s 2021, Covid19 has ravaged the world, the ways we think of working have changed radically, and we are now working from home where we can. Business data is now spread out over more and more locations and on even more devices.
Files and paper are becoming less important (as they should with the drive to be more eco-friendly), and more and more critical business information is only in one place … on your laptop!
We have our essential business presentations in PowerPoint, our budgets and forecasts in Excel, our important template letters, and our strategies in Word. Then we have our designs, supplier contacts and excel sheets, customer lists, and records of meetings … our whole business depends on all that data.
What if one email to everyone in your company, seemingly a Payslip, triggered a Ransomware infection and encrypted all that data? Sure, you can reinstall all the laptops to get them going again, but where will all those vital documents be? What if your laptop got damaged and was unrecoverable?
There are some critical questions CEOs and boards should be asking, and one should not assume all these are being adequately done; it’s possibly even more crucial than an audit!
Here are some important questions to ask:
- What is the actual cost to your business if all your data is gone forever?
- Do you have a daily backup?
- Do you know what it is backing up?
- Is the data from your cloud-based storage and email also backed up?
- Is the backup immutable (can’t be deleted by even your IT guy)?
When was it last tested to ensure it can restore? - Who is responsible for your backups?
Be aware that OneDrive, Google Drive and iCloud are not proper backups. They are great for sharing files and having a copy available online and easily shareable. Still, they do not follow the correct backup process. There have also been cases where a previous staff member has created personal OneDrive accounts, a credit card expires, or password is lost, no one can find that ex-employee, and you are in trouble.
Our advice is to get an IT professional to ensure your backups are in order.
Read: Business-savvy IT advice in challenging times 
