Kroll Ontrack has revealed the five of the most common IT administrator mistakes, mistakes which can lead to data loss.

The data recovery company says given the complexity and capacity of advanced storage devices and the criticality of organisational data, documentation and best practice implementation are critical when it comes to protecting data.

“With data stored in multiple locations and on multiple devices, loss at any level can be very detrimental, putting IT administrators in the hot seat to provide fast issue resolution and minimise downtime,” says Adrian Briscoe, general manager APAC, Kroll Ontrack.

“Under such extreme pressure, IT teams may be overlooking established ITIL best practices for IT service management in the pursuit of urgent issue resolution, leaving organisations at risk for data loss.”

To reduce the potential for critical data loss when managing IT processes and responding to IT issues, avoid falling prey to these common IT mistakes:

Failure to document and execute established IT, retention and backup procedures

A test server moves into production, but no one has informed IT that it is now capturing valuable data, and the data is not being backed up.

Or, inaccurate documentation has IT administrators decommissioning a SAN that is actually still in production, resulting in data loss.

Failure to keep OS and anti-virus software up to date

Days are busy and resources are stretched, but failing to update OS security patches and anti-virus software can result in treacherous security breaches and extensive data loss.

Failure to backup effectively

In a recent survey of Kroll Ontrack data recovery customers, 60% had a backup in place at the time of loss, but the backup was not working properly at the time of loss.

Failure to establish and follow backup procedures, or test and verify backup integrity is a guaranteed recipe for data loss.

Deleting data that is still in active use

This may be surprising but do your due diligence and ensure the data you delete is no longer of value.

Failure to test IT security policies

Even the smallest failure in IT security can lead to devastating results, including critical data loss and huge expense.

Restrict IT administrator passwords only to required users, and change them when an IT administrator leaves the company.

Some of the most compelling data loss cases are the result of a disgruntled employee with a live password intentionally deleting large amounts of critical company data.

Do you follow similar data loss prevention procedures? Tell us your methods below