According to the advancement of our society, the information and data generated are accumulating, forming a vast database, which, through proper management, allows humanity to continue progressing and innovating. In the same way, we, as data producers, are also its managers. Our daily routines, our academic studies, and even the number of steps we take each day generate data that is constantly updated and allows us to manage our lives, such as setting dietary goals, planning our professional future, or measuring our health in relation to physical activity.
This data can be grouped and generate not only national and global statistical information about eating behaviors, for example, but it also enables decisions to be made based on the analysis and progress. The importance of data management, including security and data recovery, is vital to everyone’s development.
Just as for countries and individuals, the data generated is also essential to the development and growth of companies, as it determines key decisions and helps achieve the proposed goals. The power we have in managing data is immense; therefore, it is a highly coveted, delicate, and indispensable element.
As data storage systems become more sophisticated, they also require more specialized security management. In this regard, backups and data recovery are fundamental security elements against any cyberattack or human error.
According to Steven Nelson (2011), backups can be understood as snapshots of data at a specific moment that are stored in the cloud or on-premise. Backups are updated at certain intervals and can be stored as independent backups from different moments or as differential backups, which only save the difference in data compared to the last full backup.
The frequency at which these backups are performed will guarantee their usefulness in the event of a need to recover data. According to Catherine M. Ricardo (2009), the data recovery process in the event of a failure involves restoring the database to a correct state. These failures can affect database processing, main memory, disk storage, or even backup storage devices. Some of the main causes of failures that demand data recovery include:
- Natural physical disasters and power failures
- Sabotage through contamination or intentional destruction of data, hardware, or software
- Human error by operators or users that leads to unintentional destruction or contamination of data or equipment
- Disk failures due to defects or unreadable sectors that cause loss of stored data
- System crashes due to hardware problems, resulting in the loss of main memory and cache
- Software system errors that damage the database management system
- Application software errors, such as logical failures in the program accessing the database
The main effects of these problems are the loss of data, which can affect the company’s entire management system to varying degrees. According to the IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report (2019), 60% of companies that lose critical data shut down within six months of the loss.
Additionally, the operational continuity of companies is not the only thing at risk. Another consequence of data breaches is the loss of confidential information, as seen in the recent case of military database breaches in Latin America with the Guacamaya hacks. Therefore, it is essential to consider data security in order to ensure its integrity and ease of recovery if necessary.
From this, we can analyze the importance of backups and data recovery in relation to the potential impact on the functioning of companies. Currently, the global average number of security incidents per company is 3.4, with losses of 4.8 million dollars.
In the face of potential vulnerabilities in data security, the proper management of backups and the ease of data recovery are fundamental for the development of companies. In this regard, it is important to ask ourselves if we have backups in place and are familiar with the recovery mechanisms in case of need. How long would it take to install a backup for global data recovery? How often do we update our backups, and how do we protect them from potential cyberattacks or storage errors?
As mentioned, sources of errors are numerous, and among them are human error and natural disasters, both of which are as unpredictable as they are recurrent. Therefore, data management and backup handling require strict protocols to follow, such as opting to store backups on a separate medium to avoid data corruption and setting specific intervals for performing backups.
Undoubtedly, the management of backups and restoration will rely on increasingly sophisticated systems as the amount of stored data and processes increases. Moreover, as we have outlined initially, as we move through the world, we generate data. Similarly, as companies carry out activities, they accumulate more and more information, the management of which becomes essential to their operations. In this regard, some companies specialize in providing backup management and data recovery services, ensuring the security of business data.
In conclusion, having a backup management system and knowing the data recovery mechanisms is indispensable in a reality where we depend more and more on the information we handle and the way we manage our processes. The potential vulnerabilities to which data is exposed increase as the amount of data stored grows, and since possessing this data means having power over the systems it supports, it is crucial to protect it as essential assets. In this sense, backup management and data recovery have become undeniably essential tools within the security systems of companies.
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