Always back up your most important data

Safeguard your most important data, such as your photos and key documents, by backing them up to an external hard drive or a cloud-based storage system.

If your device is infected by a virus, malicious software (malware) or accessed by a cyber criminal your data may be damaged, deleted or held to ransom by ransomware preventing you from accessing it. Backing up your data means you have another copy of it, which you can always access.

Make sure that the external hard drive you are using to back-up your data is not permanently connected to the device you are backing up either physically or over a local network connection.

The advantages of backing up your data in the cloud

A cloud service is useful because you are saving a copy of your data elsewhere, hosted by someone else out on the internet. This means that if your device is stolen/damaged/you have a fire or you suffer a ransomware attack, your data is not lost.

You may have heard about some of the high profile cyber attacks on cloud storage, such as celebrity photos being stolen. These shouldn't put you off using a cloud service because when protected by a strong password and two-factor authentication (where available) they can be a very convenient and secure way to store data you care about.

Most devices now include a cloud back up service, with a certain amount of free space, and are a sensible choice for most users. 3rd Party products may offer you additional features such as more storage space or better usability across multiple devices which you should consider against your needs.

Here are how-to-guides to set up cloud storage on Apple (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and Mac), Google  (Android) and Microsoft (Windows 10) devices.