Recent global IT outages are a lesson on why data backups should be taken seriously

In the aftermath of two recent global IT breakdowns, barely two weeks apart, with one of them significantly crippling certain critical operations around the world, the importance of securing user data comes to the fore.

The first failure happened on July 19, after a botched update from US cyber security company CrowdStrike crippled Microsoft systems around the world, in what experts deemed the biggest IT disruption in history.

The second, less-volatile incident came on July 30, involving Microsoft again, which, this time, fell victim to a distributed denial-of-service attack that targeted its cloud division.

While there were no reported data losses, it could've been worse: any data loss would be a catastrophe, particularly for consumers, who experts argue should have the time to not just back up their data, but take it seriously.

“Everything can be lost in an instant, basically,” Yotasha Thaver, an analyst at the International Data Corporation, told The National.

Back up, or else

In 2023, the world created about 120 zettabytes of data, which would equate to about 337,080 petabytes in a day; with the estimated 5.35 billion internet users globally, that means each user can potentially create about 15.87 terabytes of data daily, according to data gathered by US software firm Edge Delta.

That's nearly double from just three years ago and expected to surge by a further 50 per cent by 2025.

For perspective, that means in a day, one person can fill up 16 units of an iPhone 15 Pro Max with a 1TB capacity – a considerable amount of data at risk of being lost.

Whether the data being created is for personal or professional use is irrelevant: the point is not having a backup plan could be damaging at any level.

In fact, the importance of backing up data has been further amplified by World Backup Day, which has been commemorated every March 31 since 2011.

Consider backing up as the “digital equivalent of having insurance” and regularly doing so as “digital hygiene”, said Tareq Al Husseini, a senior sales director at US data storage company Western Digital.

“Quantifying data loss and its impact can be a daunting task, but it’s essential to understand the gravity of not backing up your data,” he told The National.

“Losing years of work data, financial records and personal files can take a huge emotional or even professional toll on you – and in some cases, it can be irreparable.”

Safeguarding data at the consumer level is also a critical aspect of protecting one's digital assets, Mohit Pandey, head of sales for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at US data storage company Seagate Technology, told The National.

These assets include sensitive content, such as personal and professional details, documents, and financial and legal information, and irreplaceable media, such as photos, videos and music.

Backups protect against human errors, hardware failure, power failures, natural disasters, over-reliance on automatic backup and, considering recent history, botched software updates and cyber attacks that lead to crashes.

“Backups can help save time, money and emotional distress if these failures occur. Being able to capture a full backup for various uses means that the need for automatic, unlimited solutions that you can access from anywhere are available to everyone,” Mr Pandey said.

The problem with backing up

However, inasmuch as there are several methods to back up data, consumers seem to take this for granted for a variety of reasons. As it is said, one may not take action for or believe in a certain situation until it happens or when it is too late.

“We all know why we should back up our data and we all know the consequences of not doing so when something goes wrong. There is no specific ‘biggest’ hurdle, but procrastination is a hurdle,” Ms Thaver said.

Mohit Agrawal, a research director at Counterpoint Research, agrees: “The 'I'll do it later' mentality often results in backups never happening … the thinking 'it will not happen to me' is a big mental block.”

Aside from procrastination, consumers also tend to have overconfidence in the reliability of the devices they use, he added.

Be it because of ignorance, laziness, or lack of awareness, “many users underestimate the importance of regular backups until they experience data loss first-hand”.

Another sticking point is the fact that you have to pay for backups – whether for hardware like external hard drives or on the cloud – as some users are reluctant to invest in such solutions, viewing them as an unnecessary expense. However, as a matter of fact, it can also be affordable.

In the UAE, a standard external hard drive starts from Dh200. Meanwhile, on the cloud, you can have options not to spend.

For instance, Apple offers free 5GB of iCloud storage on its devices; if you need more, plans start at Dh3.99 a month for an extra 50GB. Google, on the other hand, has a pay-as-you-go model in which you only pay for the space you use. The cloud may be cheaper up front, but you're locked into subscriptions to keep using that extra storage.

Despite all the options – and all the manuals and walk-throughs from data storage providers – users have the perception that the backup process is too intricate, which is a reason why older users do not back up their data, Mr Agrawal said.

“Other issues could be … that [backing up] is too slow and it takes too long, [and] the space required to backup data and the cost it comes with. Other times, accessing the backed-up data may be rather difficult if credentials are forgotten or compromised. It may seem like a tedious task,” Ms Thaver added.

Backup plans

While any breakdowns can be deemed unexpected, it is also not an excuse to be unprepared.

In both the CrowdStrike and Microsoft breakdowns, customers faced an “impossible event” that required them to respond quickly to recover their business operations, said Kevin Reed, chief information security officer at Switzerland-based cyber security firm Acronis.

“In the CrowdStrike event, they had to recover systems from a faulty update, while in the Microsoft case they needed to work with copy of data and systems available locally or from a different provider,” he told The National.

“This shows, that regardless of the nature of disruption, whether it’s a deliberate attack or a software bug, data recovery from a backup often remains the fastest and the most reliable approach to ensuring business continuity.”

These incidents put a spotlight on several key points for both consumers and businesses, including testing system updates, regularly backing up and ensuring that they have disaster recovery plans in place.

“While no data at rest was lost, many companies likely experienced loss of data that would have been captured during the downtime,” Andreas Hassellof, chief executive at Switzerland-based technology consultancy Ombori, told The National.

“Data at rest” is data that is not actively moving from network to network, or device to device.

This highlighted the “need for robust data collection and backup strategies that can handle temporary outages”.