NITDA advises Nigerians on data backup as COVID-19 impact mitigation strategy

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), with the mandate of developing and regulating Information Technology (IT) for sustainable national development, has advised Nigerians on data backup as COVID-19 impact mitigation strategy.

March 31st has been set aside as World Backup Day internationally, to remind users of computing devices of the potential consequences of stolen, lost or failed device.

It is also a day used for creating awareness on the importance of protecting computing assets by regularly backing-up data.

NITDA said making a regular backup is one way to minimise the damage that can be caused by malware that encrypts your data.

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It also said a clean data backup means you can restore most of your data from a non-infected backup whenever the need arises.

NITDA, therefore, encouraged organisations and the general public to make and safely store backup copies of all valuable data, whether from personal computers, servers, storage devices or personal electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets.

A statement issued by Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, NITDA, Hadiza Umar, said “furthermore, as we intensify our efforts of diversifying the Nigerian economy from resource-based to knowledge-based, it is imperative that we are mindful of the amount of data generated on a daily basis as well as its implication in the digital economy.

“A World Economic Forum study revealed that on a daily basis, 500 million tweets are sent, 294 billion emails are sent, 4 petabytes of data are created on Facebook, 65 billion messages are sent on WhatsApp, and about 3.5 billion searches are made on Google.

“Furthermore, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for people to work from home means that more data will be generated and may not necessarily be backed-up appropriately.

“Therefore, as we strive towards the realisation of Digital Nigeria in these challenging times, the importance of creating a culture of regular data backup among Nigerians cannot be overemphasised.

“Data backup is keeping a clean copy of any important digital content aimed at guaranteeing service availability even when computer crashes, cell phones or tablets are lost, data becomes corrupted or a virus destroys data. Data backup is a mission-critical process that NITDA enjoins all to adopt, either as individuals or organisations.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE