Top Ways to Prevent Data Loss
By Saumya Sinha
Data loss is crippling for any business, especially in the age of big data where companies
rely on digital information to refine their marketing, contact prospects, and process transactions.
Reducing the chances for data loss is a vital part of a data management strategy.
The first goal should be to prevent data loss from occurring in the first place. There
are many reasons which could lead to data loss. A few of them are listed below:
1. Hard drive failures
2. Accidental deletions (user error)
3. Computer viruses and malware infections
4. Laptop theft
5. Power failures
6. Damage due to spilled coffee or water, Etc.
However, if a loss does occur, then there are several best practices you can implement
to boost your odds of recovery.
Secondly, don't put all your storage eggs in the cloud basket. The cloud is vital for
cost-effective storage, but it does have some pitfalls that shouldn't be ignored. Many examples
of data loss have occurred from an employee simply dropping their computer or hard drive, so
talk to staff members about best practices. SD cards are much more fragile and should never
be used as a form of longer-term storage.
Here's a look at top ways you can protect your data from loss and unauthorized access.
Back up early and often
The single most important step in protecting your data from loss is to back it up regularly.
How often should you back up? That depends-how much data can you afford to lose if your system
crashes completely? A week's work? A day's work? An hour's work?
You can use the backup utility built into Windows (ntbackup.exe) to perform basic backups.
You can use Wizard Mode to simplify the process of creating and restoring backups or you can
configure the backup settings manually and you can schedule backup jobs to be performed automatically.
There are also numerous third-party backup programs that can offer more sophisticated
options. Whatever program you use, it's important to store a copy of your backup offsite in
case of fire, tornado, or other natural disaster that can destroy your backup tapes or discs
along with the original data.
Diversify your backups
You always want more than one backup system. The general rule is 3-2-1. You should have
3 backups of anything that's very important. They should be backed up in at least two different
formats, such as in the cloud and on a hard drive. There should always be an off-site backup
in the event that there is damage to your physical office.
Use file-level and share-level security
To keep others out of your data, the first step is to set permissions on the data files
and folders. If you have data in network shares, you can set share permissions to control what
user accounts can and cannot access the files across the network. With Windows 2000/XP, this is
done by clicking the Permissions button on the Sharing tab of the file's or folder's properties sheet.
However, these share-level permissions won't apply to someone who is using the local
computer on which the data is stored. If you share the computer with someone else, you'll have
to use file-level permissions (also called NTFS permissions, because they're available only
for files/folders stored on NTFS-formatted partitions). File-level permissions are set using
the Security tab on the properties sheet and are much more granular than share-level permissions.
In both cases, you can set permissions for either user accounts or groups, and you can
allow or deny various levels of access from read-only to full control.
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