Data loss has taken on a whole new meaning as people entirely store prized possessions such as photos, music and personal documents in digital formats.

As such, device or storage failures, theft and other mishaps that leave devices damaged have an increasingly serious impact.

Lincoln Goldsmith, Acronis general manager Australia, says, “It is common practice for individuals to insure their homes, vehicles, possessions, their health, and their lives.

“But, some of our most valued possessions these days are digital and highly personal, such as photos, videos, financial records, email correspondence, and other personal information."

"It is important to protect those digital parts of our lives,” he says.

While it is easy to put a price tag on a physical possession, such as a car or a mobile phone, people should think about the price tag attached to their digital selves, he says.

There is an increasingly tangible value attached to the information kept on digital devices and in the cloud, according to Acronis.

Furthermore, the dollar value of digital items is compounded when taken into consideration with the time and money it would take to replace or recover such data in the event of a storage malfunction, the company says.

“How much is your digital life worth? Once people figure that out, they can begin to identify how much they should invest to insure their online assets," Goldsmith says.

“The good news is that it is easier than ever to insure our digital selves with cloud-based backup and recovery solutions that can be applied to any number of devices or online activity,” he says.

Goldsmith recommends cloud-based systems as unlike conventional and physical storage systems, such as computer hard drives, they are not prone to the same sort of failure issues.

“As consumer behaviour changes, cloud-based back-up and recovery solutions will begin to be the go-to insurance policy for individuals and businesses alike, when it comes to protecting online assets,” he says.