The Importance of Regular Website Backups and What to Do If They Fail

Just as burglars and thieves can target physical stores, websites are vulnerable to attacks from cybercriminals that might target the website data. These sorts of attacks, human errors, or technical glitches can come at huge cost, especially without proper and regular website backups.

A website backup is an identical copy of all a website's files and data that are stored in a different location outside the website. The backup files offer secured storage that allows website owners to restore websites in case of damaging events such as hardware malfunctions, security breaches, technical glitches, malicious human activities, or human error. 

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Why is It Important to Ensure Proper Backup for Your Website?

Are you wondering why proper backup is essential for websites? Think about it like locking replicas of your valuables safely in a bank in case of robbery or other invaders. Ensuring proper backup for websites is vital to preventing loss of data in case of any sort of compromises, breaches, or cyberattacks. 

Several top websites have fallen victim and are still struggling to recover due to failure or lack of proper backup. It is advisable for website owners to protect their data and files from potential threats and attacks with careful backup practices. 

The Verizon Data Breach Investigation in 2023 gave a detailed report, stating that 83% of website violations involved external invaders like criminal organizations, and 24% of these cases involved ransomware and other cyber attacks. 

Consequently, regular backup of your website data is as vital as keeping the website running. It is a crucial part of website operation that requires special attention due to the crucial role it plays in a website’s sustainability and survival, especially during a technical glitch, cyber-attack, or ransomware.

Other benefits of regular website backups include;

• Protection against data loss
• Swift recovery after a security breach
• Prevention of sudden complete data loss
• Peace of mind
• Prevention of financial loss and damaged reputation
• Design and content preservation
• SEO and site traffic maintenance
• Provides easy route for website migration

What to Do If Your Website Data Backup Fails

Website owners and technical teams usually have little or no time to act when website backups fail. Most of the time, important data would have been lost before website owners found out about the danger.

In 2012, the Code Spaces website suffered a complete data loss after an AWS hack, losing backups and client information after a failed extortion attempt. In a more devastating event in 2021, OVHcloud, one of the biggest cloud and web hosting providers in Europe, experienced a major fire outbreak at its data center in Strasbourg, France, that by caused significant service disruptions and client’s loss of data despite backup. These events led to a prolonged service outage, financial loss, and damaged reputation.

Therefore, it is best to stay protected with maximum damage control to engage trusted data recovery services like Salvagedata for data recovery in these cases. They also help to identify vulnerabilities and provide the required security for your business.

• Other beneficial steps to take in case of a failed backup include;
• Check for sneaky or local backups you might have overlooked
• Assess the failed backup device or space and try to fix the errors
• Send the right information to data recovery experts
•  Notify users, figure out how to keep your business running, and reputation protected while at it
• Review security logs to implement a temporary solution
• Implement a robust data protection and data recovery plan immediately to prevent future damage

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Conclusion

Data backups are essential to any website's sustainability, protection, and overall security. For website data loss, prevention is always the best remedy. Therefore, it is best to secure your website by performing regular backups or hiring professional data protection and recovery specialists.

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