Backups & Security

Back Up Your Data

• Make three copies (e.g. original + external/local + external/remote)
• Copies should be geographically distributed (local vs. remote)

Data Back-up Options

• Personal computer hard drives, external hard drives, departmental or university servers
• CDs or DVDs aren't recommended, because they fail frequently
• Tape backup system
• UNMC's data storage service (Basic is free, up to 25GB; greater levels of storage available for a fee)

• Cloud storage: Box storage option is available for a fee

Security

• Unencrypted security is ideal for storing your data so that you and other can easily read it, but if encryption is required because of sensitive data:
  • Keep passwords and keys on paper (two copies) and in a pretty good privacy encrypted digital file.
  • Don't rely on third party encryption alone.
• Uncompressed is also ideal for storage, but if you need to do so to conserve space limit compression to your third backup copy.

To make sure your backup system is working properly, test your system periodically. Try to retrieve data files and make sure you can read them.

Need more help?

The U.K. Data Archive provides additional guidelines on data storage, back-up, and security.