20 Aug Why You Should Backup Your Computer Right Now

Again we’re writing a post about backups…

Storing your digital data in only one place is dangerous. Most Australian’s don’t backup their computers at least once a day.

How terrible would it be if your years of photos, documents, music, movies and more were all gone in a second?

Data loss can occur at any time to anybody, and many times human error is the number one cause. That’s why backing up your data is extremely vital. Here is why you should backup your computer and other devices right now!

Why Backups are important

We’ve been providing I.T support to clients for over 10 Years and have to continually remind clients that Backups are important.

Backups have becoming more recently even more important with the rampant use of Ransomware by Hackers.

Not sure what Ransomware is?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software from crypto-virology that threatens to publish the victim’s data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. Wikipedia

Typically we are finding hackers are getting smart with how their delivering Ransomware to the end user, We’ve seen it via Social Media Links, Emails, Illegal Downloads.

I’m sure you’ve all received the odd Origin Electricity Bill Scam or Australia Post Scam… They are getting smart and copying the format and layouts of Social Media Sites, Emails and even creating clones of Websites and Login Pages to catch non educated users out allowing them an easy way to collection Login Details etc.

Recently we had the Ransomware “WannaCry” affect one of our chiropractic clients, the encryption worked it’s way from PC to PC by way of Mapped Network Drives, the most affected PC was their Terminal Services Server which allowed their staff to remotely access their office from home.

The system allowed us to track which staff member opened the infection, but due to the client not taking our advice regarding the appropriate Anti-Virus on their system, their system was infected and encrypted and wasn’t noticed until staff we’re not able to open files or programs.

When we attended the site we asked when the last backup had been performed? Staff responded that they leave the drive plugged in on-site to let it do it’s backup – We checked and it was encrypted by WannaCry as well…. It was found their last most recent backup was indeed 3 Months ago…

Obviously for anyone be it a Home or Business losing that amount of Data is detrimental, in this case it has caused issues with client records and now incomplete accounting records.

To get the practice back up and running we got all their PC’s into our Office and cleansed them of infections, backed up the Data, Zero’d the drives and re-installed Windows and began to reconfigure their Office.

Following this security breach we have completely over-hauled the Backup procedures in this practice removing the end-user/staff from being part of the backup procedure.

Bare metal backups have been implemented onsite to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) and being backed up offsite to the Cloud using Backblaze, This therefore allows us to gain access to a complete image of the Server and workstations.

The Anti-Virus was also upgraded from a Free Home/Consumer product to an Endpoint product – Webroot SecureAnywhere Endpoint Security. This allows us to centrally manage subscriptions and infections.

I bet after reading this your freaking out about your Security and Backups.. PCFIXIT can provide advice on Network Security and Virus Protection for your Home or Business.

Contact our Team on 07 5522 1120 or send us an Email

Below here are some more tips about backups

Reasons to Backup Your Computer

Accidents happen. You may lose your laptop, unintentionally delete something, or lose data through a natural disaster. These are just some of the ways you can lose all your valuable information. It’s important to take the time to protect the data on your computer and devices, so if an accident happens, you know your files are safe, secure, backed up and easily restorable!

How to Backup Your Computer

There can be a few warning signs before your hard drive crashes. And when there is, we ignore them most of the time. The only guaranteed way to ensure you don’t lose everything is through a trusted and tested data backup system. PCFIXIT can evaluate your existing home/business data backup system, assess your backup needs and offer solutions created to match your budget.

Other Ways to Backup Your Computer

• Thumb Drives: These are common among consumers because they are easy to use and convenient to carry around. However, they cannot store a lot of data and can get lost easily. Therefore, these are not a permanent solution.
• External Backup Drive: These are not an option… The only thing these are good for are your Pirated movies and Music.. Not for Data Backup of Photos and Documents.
• Backup Through Syncing: Options like Dropbox or Google Drive are super easy to create and maintain. After the initial setup, your computer will automatically backup your files, this is only a solution as long as you remember that your data has to be put into Dropbox or Google Drive and you have to be internet connected for this to sync.

 

Recognise that ultimately, all hard drives will fail. So, you need to be prepared for the worst and ensure you backup your computer and protect it.

If your Hard Drive has failed, we can arrange Data Recovery of your Data

To learn more about our convenient computer backup options, contact PCFIXIT on 07 5522 1120