Why it matters
We all keep a lot of data on our devices – documents, photos, all sorts of personal information. Keeping a backup of your data is like having a safety net for it. It means that if any of your devices are lost or stolen, the data on them won’t be gone forever – you can replace it with the copy on your backup.
How to protect yourself
First, make sure you have something to store your backups on. Use an external hard drive or a USB drive. You can use a cloud-based service – like iCloud – to store a copy of your data too.
Do backups regularly
Get into a routine of doing your backups regularly. How often you back up depends on how often your data changes. For example, you could choose to do your backups weekly or monthly, depending on how often you save new data to your devices.
Have different backups
If you can, keep two different copies of your backups and store them in different places. That way if someone was to break in and steal your laptop and hard drive from your home, you’d still have a copy of your data saved elsewhere.
One way to do this is to use physical hardware (an external hard drive or USB drive) for one copy, and a cloud-based backup system (like iCloud) for the other.
Make sure your hard drive backups are stored offline
If you’re using a USB drive or an external hard drive to store your backups, don't leave it connected to either your network or one of your devices all the time. Make sure you disconnect it when you're not using it. If you leave it connected, anything that could affect your network or your device – like a virus – will affect the backup too.
Test your backups
Make sure your backups work and that your data is stored correctly by checking them from time to time. Check that:
- the files on your backup work
- you can access the files, and
- you can copy them back onto your device.
Check your machine is free of malware like viruses before you restore a backup from a physical device like your hard drive.
Protect your backed up data with passwords
Secure your backup by making sure it's protected with a strong password to stop anyone else accessing the data on it without you knowing. You should also set up two-factor authentication (2FA) if it’s available.
This includes your physical backups (USB drive or external hard drive) as well as your cloud-based ones.
Use two-factor authentication to protect your accounts
Build up your protection
Doing regular back-ups is a great way to protect your data online, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. There are other good online security practices you can add to help keep your information safe. For example, make sure you install any security updates on your devices as they become available, and make sure you use good anti-virus software too.
Get help
If you’ve experienced an online security issue, your first step is to contact the service provider.
You can also report an online issue or security incident to us at CERT NZ.