Nearly 45 per cent of Indians do not back up their data or files, risking data loss should they be destroyed or deleted, according to a study by digital security products company Avast.

Of those who do not back up their data, nearly 34 per cent claim they don’t have any data or files that are important enough to back up. Further, 32 per cent don’t know how to back up their data, 22 per cent forget to, and 22 per cent don’t have time, said the study.

Of those who do back up their data, nearly 42 per cent Indians back up to a cloud storage, 36 per cent back up their data to an external hard drive, 23 per cent back on a USB or flash disk, 18 per cent back up their phone to their PC, and 10 per cent back up to a network storage drive.

About 53 per cent take backups once a month, 12 per cent continuously, 12 per cent every 1-6 months, 15 per cent every 6-12 months and 7 per cent less often than yearly, the study said.

When it comes to iPhone and Android phone owners, the percentage that back up is nearly the same, 69 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively. How frequently they back up varies with 67 per cent of iPhone users backing up their data at least once a month, while only 59 per cent of Android users do the same. 21 per cent of iPhone owners claim to back up continuously, and 13 per cent of Android owners claim to do the same.

Data loss can be caused by users accidentally deleting their data themselves, hardware damage and failure, and malware, causing valuable data such as photos, videos, documents, and messages to be lost. Ransomware and other malware, such as wipers, can either encrypt or completely destroy files, and there is no guarantee that files can be decrypted if a ransom is paid.

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