Back up data
Purpose
Backups are the last line of defence again irreparable data loss (caused by theft, compromise, hardware or software updates, human error, natural disasters, etc.) and unauthorized data alterations.
Audience
faculty researchers Admin staff IT staff students
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Initial considerations
Determine your data's classification.
Classifying your data is the first step to knowing what safeguards are required to securely backup your data.
Do suitable storage solutions exist at the University that provide backups?
Administrative data
Research data
Departmental or divisional solutions
Contact your Local IT group about possible existing backup solutions.
Develop a resilient backup strategy.
While any backup is better than none, not all backups are made the same; it is important to plan out a resilient backup strategy to reduce the risk of data loss.
What can I do?
This section assumes that an institutional or cloud-based backup solution is not feasible or workable.
Back up to an encrypted hard drive or encrypted mobile storage device.
While self-encrypting or encrypted devices can provide an easy and cost-effective means of backing up data, their mobility can introduce increased theft risks.
Ensure physical backups are locked away securely. https://handbook.security.utoronto.ca/wiki/spaces/ISH/pages/4030793
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Additional help
General
Researchers
Research Information Security - Information Security at University of Toronto
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