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World Backup Day, observed every year on 31 March, is an opportunity for organizations and their employees to take proactive steps toward protecting their digital information. With so much professional and personal information stored on phones, laptops, and tablets, maintaining reliable backups is more important than ever.
Regular backups significantly reduce the impact of unexpected events such as device loss or theft, hardware failures, malware, or accidental deletion.
Backups also are essential to supporting today's hybrid workforce. By establishing a structured backup cadence aligned with globally recognized standards and guidance from ISO, NIST, CIS, and similar organizations, organizations can protect sensitive and confidential data.
Correctly and securely storing personal data in the cloud or on an external drive protects employee data, enabling access to files from anywhere, reducing the number of devices needed while traveling, and thus limiting the risk of exposure—whether through insecure backups or insecure recovery methods—for both the employee and the organization.
Choosing a Backup Method
Employees should be advised on the benefits and considerations of different methods to secure their data. Backups can be stored on externally on a hard drive or on a solid-state drive (SSD), or by using a cloud-based service, such as iCloud, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive—or, ideally, on both. Using both an external device and a cloud‑based service provides stronger protection than relying on a single backup method. The table below compares both backup methods, highlighting key benefits and best practices.
| Backup Type | Key Benefits | Considerations/Best Practices | Examples |
| Cloud‑Based Backup Services |
|
|
iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Time Machine (Mac) |
| External Hard Drive or SSD |
|
|
External USB hard drive, External SSD |
Essential Backup Actions to Reduce the Risk of Data Loss
Encouraging good backup habits helps protect both organizational and personal data. The following World Backup Day action items and checklist can help guide employees' personal backup practices:
- Set Up the Backup
- Encourage employees to use at least one backup method (cloud or external drive)
- Preferably, two backups for extra protection should be maintained
- Secure the Backup
- Remind employees to create a long, unique password for backup accounts
- Recommend enabling encryption when available
- Educate employees on the risks of oversharing on social media and ensure that security questions cannot be inferred from publicly available information.
- Choose Reliable Tools
- Recommend external drives be purchased from reputable vendors
- Choose cloud services with clear privacy and security policies
- Employees should confirm enough storage is available for files
- Establish a Routine
- Cloud backups: remind employees to enable automatic backups
- External drive backups: encourage employees to set a calendar reminder to run regularly
- Test the Backup
- Employees should verify that their backup is running successfully
- Remind employees to periodically restore a test file to ensure backups are reliable
Tip: Regular digital backups help reduce security risk and keep devices running efficiently.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
