March 31st is World Backup Day 2021, the 10th anniversary of the inaugural World Backup Day in 2011. Though the day serves as a reminder to backup your data, this process should be done frequently to offset the risk of data loss - or the intentional or unintentional destruction of information, which may be caused by people or processes from within or outside of an organization. 

To honor World Backup Day this year, Security magazine spoke to industry experts. Take a look at what they had to say about the importance of backing up your data, and preventing data loss.

W. Curtis Preston, Chief Technical Evangelist, Druva: 

While we’ve celebrated a decade’s worth of World Backup Days, this past year has tested the ability to protect business data like no other. According to our Value of Data report, since the onset of the pandemic, IT leaders in the UK and US have reported an increase in data outages (43%), human error tampering data (40%), phishing (28%), malware (25%) and ransomware attacks (18%). 

As we move into the next phase of the new normal with hybrid workforces shifting between in-office and remote work, new data management challenges and potential security gaps will arise, especially if the data housed in collaboration tools, such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace, is overlooked. As more operations and everyday enterprise applications move online, a robust approach to data resiliency is critical. 

Whether it’s the data fueling NASA’s rover landing on Mars, COVID-19 research and vaccination trials, or even our election results, backups add another layer of protection to the world’s most sensitive information. As we look ahead to the future, data protection will only take on more significance. There is no better time to evaluate and reassess your current backup and recovery strategies than World Backup Day. Ensure you have a contingency plan at the ready. After all, a little planning will never hurt anybody. 

Michael Cade, Senior Technologist, Kasten by Veeam:

Has there been a more pivotal year to global businesses than 2020? As employees went fully remote, it was yet another reminder to have a solid, globally-implemented backup and disaster recovery plan in place to re-evaluate current solutions and workflows to see if they are going to meet business needs for the next year. The explosive growth of cloud-native storage options, plus growing threats of ransomware, to a more distributed workforce is critical for unifying priorities between storage operators and developers.

Accommodating modernization efforts will be critical, and being aware of how your organization can transition to infrastructure to accommodate both business and IT transformation. Adopting cloud-native, containers, and microservices creates its own challenges, so ensuring solutions employ a native backup solution lower risk and enable faster recovery time, while providing other key benefits that help your team execute backups more efficiently. Developers and operators also need a better understanding of their available storage; this means making sure storage is correctly configured for snapshots, which in turn is going to help streamline the data management and protection strategy within the business.

Likewise, proactively addressing security risks with the growing threat of malware targeting both production and backup files and documents, organizations must address risks to data with a focus on being resilient against ransomware and other threats.

Rita Gurevich, Founder and CEO, Sphere:

World Backup Day’ is an excellent reminder for everyone as to how important protecting data is to an organization. But protecting data does not stop is not just a one-day event. Ensuring the right people have the right level of access to the right data is essential for any organization’s success.

Shash Anand, VP of Product Strategy, SOTI:

It remains critical for companies to protect vulnerable endpoints against malware designed to steal sensitive data by blocking unapproved operating system (OS) versions and updating old virus software. Remote work presents the biggest cybersecurity challenge yet. Business leaders and their IT departments need effective backup and disaster recovery solutions. Some solutions, for example, provide peace of mind, streamlined operations and enhanced reliability for businesses looking to learn from these mistakes and take the first step in data protection.