Using online services safely

Even if you’re using a cloud service to store important information (rather than storing it on your own equipment), you still need to check that:

• all your essential data is exported and backed up
• you know how to access and restore it (in case the worst happens)

Some cloud services keep previous versions of your files and content. This means that if you lose data (perhaps due to a ransomware attack) you might still have a copy of your data that you can recover. Some cloud services also keep a copy of your deleted files for a short period (the provider may be able to recover files that an attacker deleted from your cloud service).

However, you should not solely rely on these mechanisms for a reliable backup of your critical and important data. You should ensure that you keep an independent copy in another safe place or service.

Please refer to our guidance on Backing up your business-critical and most important data to establish an approach. If you use another cloud service to back up your data, you can follow our Principles for ransomware-resistant cloud backups to protect it from ransomware.