One of the GDPR's directives concerns the implementation of backup systems that ensure the security of data. This is the only way to prevent and remedy possible losses of information.

At a time when internet connectivity has become an integral part of people's daily lives, there is a growing tendency to make personal data available, especially on social media.

The use of technology in business has led organisations (public and private), in carrying out their activities, to start using consumers' personal data without any kind of control or restriction.

In this article, we explain why having backups is crucial for every organisation and how it relates to GDPR compliance.

What is the GDPR?

In force since 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union law that sets out the rules for the processing, protection and free movement of personal data, with the aim of protecting the rights and freedoms of data subjects.

The Importance of Backups for data protection

Data protection is currently a much-discussed topic and one that can prove very costly for organisations, with fines reaching up to 20 million euros or 4% of the organisation's turnover.

Virus and malware attacks are increasingly common, which makes data backup imperative. In addition, the General Data Protection Regulation requires a secure structure that guarantees data subjects the privacy of their data.

With the GDPR coming into force, backups have become even more important, since organisations need to know precisely where personal data is, so that it can be changed, deleted, moved or verified as to whether it was involved in any incident related to a cyber attack or data theft.

To be effective, backups should be made weekly and according to 3 rules.

3 Backup rules

1 - Have at least two copies of the data

For the backup to be effective and to guard against any failure, backups should be made in duplicate.

2 - Store the copies in different formats

Ideally, backup copies should be kept both offline, using internal or external devices (external disks, USB pens, memory cards...), and online, namely on a cloud service. This way, if there is a failure or no internet access, there is always an alternative.

3 - Keep one of the backups away from the usual workplace

To increase data security, at least one of the backups should be kept in a location outside the office that is not exposed to external risks.

Skysafe: Data Security in the Cloud

SkySafe ensures the monitoring, backup, encryption, scalability and continuous security of critical data from computers and servers.

Openlimits' SkySafe is a service that ensures backups of your organisation's critical data, addressing the most likely scenarios of information loss, hardware failure and human error. As well as making backups to a local drive (an external disk or server, for example), SkySafe also protects data on Microsoft Azure©.

Written by:
Openlimits

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