What You Should Do If Your Company Suffers Some Significant Data Loss
It’s a small business owner’s nightmare — major data loss. It can strike any company, big or small, and it doesn’t discriminate. However well-prepared, nobody is 100 percent safe. If it happens to you, it’s important to know that plenty of business owners have stood where you stand, and many have survived. Here’s what you should do following significant data loss.
What Is Data Loss and How Can It Occur?
Succinctly put, data loss is when any of your business’ digital data is lost, made inaccessible or unreadable to you, or rendered unusable by the many programs and apps that use it. There are many ways that a company can suffer data loss, including hacking, malware/viruses, accidental deletion, vindictive employees , physical damage of storage (spilling a drink, for example), or an act of god (an electrical storm surge). Some data loss is permanent, and some is recoverable.
What to Do Right Way
Don’t attempt to recover data if you don’t really know what you’re doing. You’re going to want to call in some pros, and it’s best that they handle each step of the process — even simple things like a reboot. Digital forensic specialists like Secure Data Recoveryprovide a reliable way to recoup lost data. In fact, many of these trained professionals can recover data on fried hard drives, water-damaged equipment, and even data that has been stolen by hackers.
If you have physical backups of some of your data, secure them and disconnect them from any network that may have been compromised. If you have data backups in the cloud, contact your cloud storage provider and explain the situation. Do not attempt to download your data from digital storage until you and the recovery team have identified the issue and given the all-clear.
Consider Data Recovery Software
Another option you have is to look at the various data recovery software options available to you. There are good programs out there, but they have some limitations. If your data loss happened off a solid-state drive (SSD) — likely in PCs manufactured in the past year or so — you will need the help of data recovery specialists. If, as PC Mag notes , your data loss comes from “traditional spinning hard drives, flash drives, SD cards, and other forms of portable storage, including your phone,” then good recovery software should work.
Focus on Preventing Future Data Loss
The best defense against data loss is preparation and care. The most important step to take is backing up your data in multiple reliable ways (physical storage and cloud-based). You should also take care to store your physical data in places where it’s less likely to get water, heat, or humidity damage. Finally, invest in good malware protection. While less common, a decent amount of business-related data loss still comes from hacking-related corruption.
There is one cause of data loss that often fails to receive the same amount of attention as the others: human-based data loss. Yes, employees can take files with them on their way out, or at least sabotage data as they exit your company. Better hiring practices, explicit data ownership guidelines, and limiting access to sensitive data can all help with this.
In today’s digital age, most small businesses live and die by their data — sales records, analysis, customer records, email lists, and so on. Data loss can be a frightening thing no matter how small or large your business is. However, if you take the right recovery steps and immediately implement procedures to prevent further loss, your business will not only survive it, but you will also come out stronger on the other side.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
