This post first appeared on the iland website.
World Backup Day was born out of regret.
As the story goes, the idea germinated on Reddit, as many things do, when some poor soul lamented the loss of a hard drive, which, tragically, had not been backed up. If only they had been more prepared …
From that simple, yet visceral post emerged a global effort to prevent such regret. That is why we now set aside March 31, just before April Fools’ Day, to remind all who will listen to be prepared for data loss and theft. Don’t be fooled into not backing up your data!
As World Backup Day stretches into its second full decade in 2022, individuals and organizations alike would be wise to heed its call to action. In fact, World Backup Day is more important now than ever before.
Mo Data Mo Problems
The first World Backup Day was celebrated in 2011 — or 29 iPhone models, 20 Marvel movies, three U.S. Presidents, and one pandemic ago. Suffice it to say, our world looks a lot different, as does our data.
For starters, we have a lot more of it now. From 2011 to 2022, the total amount of data created worldwide increased by 92 zettabytes, according to Statista. (For reference, a zettabyte is a billion terabytes. Think about it this way: If every terabyte in a zettabyte were a kilometer, it would be equivalent to 1,300 round trips to the moon. Go ahead and multiply that by 92 and you’ll start getting a sense of the amount of data we’re talking about.)
As data increases, so does its value to us. Medical records, financial statements, confidential employee information, classified government documents, pictures of your pets, all of it living electronically somewhere. A pessimist might choose to frame this another way. The more data we have, the more data we have to lose. As the Notorious B.I.G. would say, “Mo Data Mo Problems.”
Today, the pain associated with losing data — because of human error, hardware failure, natural disaster, or theft — has become almost ubiquitous. Even my 85-year-old grandparents (generally) understand the importance of backing up their photos to the cloud. While losing family photographs can be frustrating, even saddening, the financial, legal, and reputational ramifications associated with data loss can be catastrophic for businesses, governments, and other large organizations.
And here’s the final rub: As the amount and value of data increases, so will attempts to steal and/or compromise it. Those who pay attention to recent headlines already know this to be true.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are expected to grow by 15 percent year over year. By 2025, the damages are predicted to reach $15 trillion annually, up from $3 trillion in 2015. That would represent the greatest transfer of economic wealth in human history — exponentially larger than costs associated with natural disasters and more profitable than the global sale of all major illegal drugs combined.
Yeah … yikes.
Back(up) to the Basics
The unfortunate truth of our time is it’s likely not a matter of if data loss will occur — but when. Data can be accidentally deleted or become corrupted. Viruses, physical damage, or formatting errors can render it unreadable by both humans and software. Cyber attacks are not only growing in frequency, but sophistication, with criminals finding new and creative ways to reach our data.
It increasingly looks like data loss — at least for a time — is inevitable.
In light of this reality, we’re reminded just how important the message of World Backup Day actually is. The need for secure, reliable backup has never been more paramount, especially for critical industries like healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, government, education, and transportation. There’s simply no room for “If Only” scenarios that end in data loss and regret.
Backups can truly make a difference when protecting your critical data. To get started, organizations should ensure that they’re abiding by the golden rule of data protection: the 3-2-1 rule of backup. This rule stipulates that you should keep three instances of your data (original and two backup copies) on two different media (i.e. cloud) with one copy off-site in case of a natural disaster or other data catastrophe.
As data loss events become more unpredictable, the need for an air-gapped/hardened backup target has also become a must-have. Many ransomware varieties or malicious processes will now attempt to delete or encrypt backup data. Ensuring your organization’s backups are protected from such threats is vital.
The good news is that with a little extra initiative, there are reasons to believe that our data can be protected and retrievable when needed. Luckily, today’s backup and recovery solutions are simple to manage, affordable, flexible, and non-intrusive.
This World Backup Day, make sure you have the right backup and recovery solutions in place. Protect your data wherever it lives with iland and 11:11 Systems. You won’t regret it.
For more information: iland Secure Cloud Backup.
James Costanzo is a Content Strategist at iland Cloud. In this role, James helps to create iland’s product, communications, and customer reference messaging and content. A storyteller at heart, James worked in development and as a reporter for nearly a decade prior to joining iland marketing. James graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
