Security: Backed your data up recently? Here’s why you should

Your data matters – make sure to back it up

By Jarrod McAleese

We’ve all seen a pop-up message prompting us to “backup” the data on our devices, whether it’s on our phones, laptops, or desktop computers – don’t ignore it!

Every minute, 113 phones are lost or stolen, and around 30% of computers are infected with malware.

(Kensington Study, 2013)

Despite this, around 21% of people have never made a backup.

(Backblaze – State of Backups 2021)

We receive these alerts for good reason. The valuable information of many Australians, including businesses within our property industry, is at significant risk if it is not regularly backed up to a safe location.

Those working within our sector accumulate highly sensitive and critical data, making them, as well as the homebuyers and sellers they represent, attractive targets for cybercriminals. A backup is a copy of digital information such as photos, documents, videos and data from apps saved to an external storage device or the cloud.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has shared case studies on how some Australian small businesses who were targeted by cybercriminals, protected their important information and data by backing up their devices.

Case study #1

In Queensland, employees of a small business noticed their documents had a different file extension and could not be accessed. Staff found a text file left by a cybercriminal, claiming their files had been encrypted and demanded a ransom payment to recover them. Upon further investigation, the business detected a security breach in their remote desktop server and decided to shut it down and remove it from their network. The business had all their files backed up and were able to restore everything that had been encrypted by the cybercriminal.

Case study #2

In Western Australia, an employee of a large business clicked on a suspicious link in an email. After clicking the link, the employee’s computer was infected with ransomware that spread to the company’s file server and started encrypting files. Thankfully, the company had good access control policies in place and the employee’s limited permissions reduced how many files could be encrypted by ransomware. After noticing a number of folders were encrypted, the company shut down all computer systems and restored all computers and servers from a recent backup.

Case study #3

In the Australian Capital Territory, a small business noticed their Network Attached Storage (NAS) device was infected with ransomware. Their NAS device held business-critical files and photos. The business became aware of the attack when the owner couldn’t access their files. A cybercriminal had encrypted their data and left a ransom note demanding a Bitcoin payment in exchange for the decryption key. The business refused to pay the ransom and was able to restore most of the affected files from backups. After the attack, the business updated the malware scanner on their NAS device. In these three cases, due to the existence of recent company-wide backups, each business was protected from any serious damage.

Secure your data today

Our important data can be lost instantly, so back it up regularly before it is too late. On 31 March it is World Backup Day.

Australians should use this as an opportunity to backup their important documents and precious memories, and encourage their family and friends to do the same.

The ACSC website is the one-stopshop for Australians and Australian businesses to access a range of stepby-step guides on how to backup devices, including for Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS and Apple macOS devices.

For more information, visit cyber.gov.au.