Sound advice for secure backup: do it yourself! - Security

Computer Technology Review, Oct, 2003 by Loius Raphael

All of us realize the importance of backing up data from our hard drives, but very few of us take the matter into our own hands. Relying on systems administrators to backup that data onto servers is the preferred choice for many of us, but an alarming new study by Dantz Development Corporation is sure to change all that.

According to the survey, an estimated 85% of U.S. companies have 'fessed-up to rarely or never backing up desktop or notebook computers, leaving them vulnerable to significant data loss. While most companies in the study adequately back up servers, the same companies fail to back up desktop and notebook computers, where as much as 90% of company data is actually located. Think about it. How often do you save your daily work onto the company server? The truth of the matter is that it's much more convenient to just let it sit comfortably on the desktop. But in doing so, you risk losing all of that valuable information the instant your hard drive quits on you.

The study concluded that laptop computers are the most at risk for data theft. According to a statement issued in September, one in four notebooks will lose data due to damage, loss or theft. Executives that travel with them are making important company documents vulnerable to potential thieves. The study found that nearly two-thirds of businesses expected employees to back up their own computers or to move important data onto servers--a practice that is apparently not very widespread.

Relying on individual employees is a flawed data protection strategy, as most employees cannot locate important hidden files to save and every employee must remember to manually back up his or her data regularly.

In a statement released in September, Dantz's vice president of worldwide marketing, Tony Barbagallo, concluded that "Businesses acknowledge that desktop and notebook computers contain data that would be devastating to lose, yet most companies have not instituted reliable policies and strategies for protecting these computers."