Reid, a cybersecurity expert with Internet Systems Consortium, said there are two types of back-ups.

One is a physical security back-up, which protects against the loss of data during a computer crash. That type of back-up is short-term.

“Every company in the managed IT business will do physical security back-ups,” he said. “It’s similar to the concept of security video from the cops shows. If a cop subpoenas it, there are only very recent backups. A physical security backup can be overwritten in a matter of weeks.”Another type archives data farther back in time and is intended to be a record of what the data was at certain times in the past, Reid said. Companies dedicated to archival backups store the data in high-security warehouses. McClatchy