This Halloween, few stories are as chilling as what unfolded at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, South Korea, when a fire tore through the government’s main data center. While luckily no one got hurt, the fire did have devastating consequences, destroying their Government Drive cloud storage system, and with it, over 858TB of government data and the work files of more than 125,000 government employees.
What makes this incident truly terrifying is that the outcomes could have been prevented. While other systems destroyed in the fire had backups, the design for this particular system didn’t include external backups, leaving its data completely unprotected once the fire broke out. Overnight, years of work and institutional knowledge vanished, affecting government services. This loss was not because of hackers, but because there was no plan for the unthinkable.
For IT professionals and business leaders alike, this incident should serve as a stark reminder: backups are not optional, and testing and securing them is just as important as creating them. There is no need to figure out how to do this on your own, however! In this post, you’ll learn why your backup and disaster recovery strategies deserve as much attention as your cybersecurity measures, actionable tips on how to make sure you never face a similar nightmare and how managed IT services can take the stress out of protecting your own data.
Your Backups Are Only as Safe as Where You Keep Them
This NIRS data center incident is the kind of real-life IT horror story that keeps business owners up at night. But while catastrophic events like fires are less common, your systems still face other risks daily. From cyberattacks, hardware failures to software bugs and human error, if you want a safety net when the inevitable happens, you’ll need to prioritize having backups in place.
However, if those backups aren’t properly secured, the very system meant to protect you can become your biggest vulnerability. That’s why the most important step in any backup strategy is pairing it with strong cybersecurity safeguards from the start, such as:
- Encryption: Encrypt backup data both in transit and at rest. Even if someone gains access to your backups, encryption keeps your information unreadable and protected.
- Access Control: Limit access using role-based permissions and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Fewer people with backup access means attackers have fewer potential entry points to exploit.
- Security Audits: Regularly review your backup processes, permissions, and logs. A managed IT services provider makes this process simpler, applying their expertise to do it efficiently and effectively.
- Secure Storage: Never keep all your backups in one place or on the same network. Follow the 3-2-1 rule—three copies, two media types, one offsite or in the cloud—and use immutable backups that can’t be altered or deleted.
- Employee Training: Human error is still the leading cause of data loss. Ongoing training ensures employees understand how to protect backup data and recognize risky behaviors.
When disaster strikes, a secure backup can mean the difference between recovery and ruin.
The Only Way to Know Your Backups Work Is to Test Them
Relying on a backup that you haven’t tested is like assuming you know where your flashlight will turn on during a power outage. It might turn on and shine brightly, but you don’t want to find out it doesn’t, and be left in the dark, when you need it most.
Too often, organizations assume their backup process is working, only to discover issues after disaster strikes. Files may be incomplete, corrupted, or stored on media that’s quietly degraded over time. In some cases, backup systems themselves become outdated, failing to meet modern security standards. Without testing, you can’t be confident your data will actually restore — or restore quickly — when it matters.
Here are a few steps you should follow to validate your backups are always reliable:
- Create a regular testing schedule: Make backup testing part of your IT maintenance routine. Schedule restore tests on an ongoing basis to verify that your data is intact, accessible, and restorable. Document results so you can spot recurring issues and track improvements over time.
- Test Full and Partial Restores Don’t just test whether backups exist. Confirm that our system can restore both entire systems and individual files.
- Simulate Real-World Scenarios: Run recovery drills for different situations — from ransomware attacks to power outages — to see how your systems and staff perform under pressure.
- Use automated testing tools: Want to reduce human error and ensure checks happen even when workloads get busy? Modern platforms can automatically validate backups for corruption, missing data, or failed transfers. You’ll get instant if something’s wrong, without needing to manually monitor the system.
- Monitor and Adjust: As your infrastructure evolves, update your backup procedures to align with new technologies, regulations, and risks. Relying on a managed IT services provider for this means tapping into their expertise, so you don’t have to figure this out alone.
Don’t Stop at Backup, Plan for Full Recovery
Having backups is essential. But backups alone don’t guarantee business continuity. If your systems go down due to a cyberattack, power failure, or human error, a backup preserves your data. But a disaster recovery plan (DR plan) restores your business. Think of it this way: if backups are your spare tire, disaster recovery is the entire roadside assistance kit that gets you back on the road quickly.
Without a broader DR strategy, especially one developed and executed by a managed IT services provider, your business may still face extended downtime, lost revenue, and frustrated customers while systems are being restored.
A comprehensive DR plan defines how you’ll recover, who will be involved, and what steps to take to get critical systems online. It should include:
- Failover solutions that automatically switch operations to backup systems when your primary environment fails.
- Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) that set clear expectations for how fast and how much data can be restored.
- Communication and coordination plans so your team knows exactly what to do in the first hours of an incident.
Prepare to Stay Online When the Power Goes Offline
The fire at the NIRS data center showed how quickly physical disasters can erase critical systems. Closer to home, Alberta businesses face similar risks from summer heat waves, wildfires, and sudden storms that can strain or knock out the power grid.
Preparing for these scenarios helps you build resilience before disaster strikes. Beyond keeping secure, offsite backups and maintaining a tested disaster recovery plan, as we’ve already discussed, organizations could strengthen their infrastructure by:
- Using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which provides short-term power to keep systems running during an outage and prevents data loss or equipment damage while you safely shut down or switch to a generator.
- Adding surge protection and network redundancy to protect against power spikes and keep your systems online
- Leveraging cloud tools and empowering secure remote access so teams can keep working even when your office is offline.
Partner with PC Corp to Stop IT Nightmares Before They Strike
The NIRS data center fire was a powerful reminder that even well-built systems can fail without a strong protection plan. When disaster strikes, the line between recovery and ruin can be frighteningly thin.
With PC Corp, you’ll partner with dedicated experts to help you stay one step ahead. With our managed IT services, your organization gains the support and strategy needed to maintain a secure, resilient environment. From proactive monitoring and maintenance to robust backup and disaster recovery support, every measure is designed to keep your operations alive and thriving, no matter what nightmares come your way.
Don’t wait until something goes bump in your network. Reach out to us to reinforce your defenses and rest easy knowing your data, systems, and future are safe.
