With so much of our professional and personal lives taking place online it is essential that our all-important data is as secure as possible. The last thing you want is to wake up one day to a computer virus and the realisation that your most valuable files have been deleted and there is little hope in getting them back.

With this in mind, in the following paragraphs we are going to breakdown the key things you need to know about storing your files safely and protecting yourself against viruses and other cyber threats.

Storing your files appropriately

A huge part of keeping your data protected is making sure that you store it appropriately. There are countless different ways that people choose to store data and it is always recommended that you adopt more than one approach.

Offsite document storage

An approach that is extremely popular in business is to use offsite document storage. A specialist IT firm will be able to house your most confidential data and as they have a wealth of experience in data security, you can rest assured that your precious data is in safe hands.

Think of this like having a safe within a bank for your prized personal possessions. It doesn’t get much more secure than that!

Saving data to your pc

The most common way of storing data is to save it to your pc or laptop. With the ability to password protect certain folders on your device you’ll be able to ensure that the average Joe who borrows your laptop wont be able to access your most confidential data.

Using an external hard drive

Another approach is to store your data on an external hard drive. Because the hard drive can be plugged into any device with a USB connection it means that you’ll be able to access your data without having to worry about lugging a laptop with you wherever you go.

Just make sure that you don’t store your most important documents solely on an external hard drive. They are easy to lose and if the device becomes corrupt your data will be lost forever.

Cloud systems

Cloud systems are experiencing somewhat of a boom at the moment. You can save your work to the cloud and easily access the data from any device, as long as you have an Internet connection. The thing to be watchful of here is if you have multiple devices that aren’t secure. Let’s say you can access confidential financial reports on your phone. If your phone doesn’t have a strong passcode on it, anyone will be able to log in and view your files.

Protecting yourself against viruses and keeping your system secure

Now that you know more about the various ways to store your data, you’ll want to make sure that you protect yourself from any sort of threat.

Install good antivirus software

First things first, the biggest threat to the security of your data is a computer virus. Viruses come in different shapes and forms and it can be difficult to prevent them if you don’t have the necessary antivirus software in place.

With this in mind it is essential that you install a reputable antivirus and regularly scan your system to eliminate any potential threats. If you are working within a company it can be difficult to ensure that all of your employees are using their systems in a secure way, so it would be useful to consult an IT support company that specialises in security.

Never use a password more than once

It can be so easy to fall into the trap of using one password for all of the systems that you log into. After all, you are a busy person and the last thing you need is to have to remember a billion passwords and when to use them.

However, by using one password you are opening yourself up to a major security threat. If someone were to get hold of that one password they would have access to all of your data and accounts, so things that you thought were confidential won’t be for much longer.