However, it’s important to have all the IT protection and systems in place just in case the worst did happen. You need to make sure your business data is protected from hacking, viruses, cyber- attacks and the old fashioned kind of disasters like fire or water damage.

Here are five things you need to be thinking about to help protect your business data:

1) Have protocols in place for all staff

If you have staff working remotely or in different countries even, you need to make sure they are all familiar with the IT protocols for the business when it comes to saving and storing company work and information. Make sure all staff have up-to-date IT equipment such as firewalls and anti-virus software and that they all know where the shared files and drives are.

The last thing you want is to find out your business data has been compromised because a staff member working from home accidentally opened a personal email with a virus built in to it. Make sure staff know and understand their responsibilities in storing data safely.

2) Know what you would need to keep your business running

If the worst happened and your business premises were wiped out by a flood or fire, what information, tools and communication would you need to be able to keep up and running? Once you have figured out which systems are vital to your business – such as accounting, client contact details and business insurance documents – make sure you have an IT solution in place to store them safely off the premises as well, for example with a cloud backup system.

1) Set your business up with cloud storage

It’s really important to have digital copies of all of your important business documents and then store them somewhere remote such as Google Drive or Dropbox. That way, even if your entire IT system were to fail, all of your documents would be safe and securely stored.

These types of systems vary with free and paid for options so look into which works best for your business – you might need to take into account the size of data you need to store and whether you need ongoing backup solutions as well

4) Upgrade your software applications

If any of your business software is stored on hard drives then look to transfer to app-based or cloud-based versions of the programmes, and if you rely on paper-based systems for recording holidays or time tracking, then you should look to upgrade and move to app-based versions which employees can use on their smart phones any time.

1) Check your business insurance

It’s really important to protect your business against an IT disaster by making sure you have appropriate business insurance in place. If the worst happened and all your data was stolen, you need to know you have cover to support you while everything is being resolved.

Protecting your business data from an IT disaster is largely a matter of identifying what’s important to your business and making sure you have appropriate IT solutions in place to protect all of it. If you need help and advice on the best IT solutions to protect your business, give us a call at HBC.