Is your Backup safe?

There are fundamentally two types of backup: cloud backups and local backups.

A Cloud backup is a backup that uses the internet in some way. This could be a formal backup program or one of the more subtle programs, like OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox. I am often asked if these are safe, from the point of view of someone ‘hacking’ them online. The reality is there is a greater chance of someone breaking into your house and accessing your computer than there is of someone hacking one of these online accounts.

A local backup is one made to a USB device or network device somewhere in your home. So, what about your local backup if someone breaks in? It’s not just a break in that threatens your local backup, but a fire will destroy it too. If you use a local backup, make sure it is removed from where the computer or laptop lives and is placed in a separate room, this way a thief probably won’t find it and, in the event of fire, if the PC goes then the backup might survive.

It’s obvious that the statistics relating to fire and theft mean your data is pretty safe. The key is to make sure you have a backup as computer failure or data corruption or human error are far greater threats to those precious photos and the invaluable documents you would hate to lose. The advice is simple: backup, backup, backup!