When we think about backing up our local computer, most of us think about plugging in the USB thumb drive or external drive. Neither of these are methods I would recommend using to back up your data. Here are a few reasons why:
- Even if you’ve made sure to back up the data on these physical devices, it is still susceptible to fire, theft, or even hardware failure.
- These devices do not automatically back up a device’s data. Thus, it can be easy for users to forget to back up their files regularly, which risks losing the information.
- If the device is always connected to your computer or network, it’s susceptible to hacking, where someone can gain control of your computer and encrypt all your files on your external drive. In order to fix this, one would have to pay cryptocurrency to recover the files.
There are lots of cloud solutions to making sure that your data is always updated. These cloud services run on your computer and they’re always backing up your data. That data is not on site to your location. It’s offsite at the cloud storage provider.
Most of the cloud data backup providers now encrypt your data, so that if they had any type of breach on their end, the data would be protected and your information would not be available to the public.
There are other backup services like Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, and Apple’s iCloud.
The difference between these three and cloud backup services is that the latter back up everything on the device. They save everything from your application settings to changes in your wallpaper.
The One Drive, Google Drive and Apple iCloud do a great job in that they only back up certain sections of your drive, such as documents and photos. In my opinion, this is the easiest route to go. The best route is a cloud backup service and the least favorite of mine is the self-initiated USB charger external drives.
