More than just data lost in cruel hack

SOME say it was an act of evil.

On the Queen's Birthday long weekend, a Melbourne IT company's hard drives were hacked and thousands of files and websites erased. Today that company, Distribute.IT, is dead - its business and reputation so trashed that its owners were forced this week to sell it to a competitor. Thousands of small Australian businesses whose websites it hosted are picking up the pieces.

The hacker obliterated 4800 websites in a lightning nighttime strike upon Distribute.IT on June 11, leaving a message on the company's home page: ''owned by evil at efnet you mother f***ers need to get a clue before you run a business your security is horrible !!!!! the one and only evil at efnet i am back mother f***ers!!!''

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Distribute.IT's clients quickly began screaming for answers, but it took the company 10 days to report - via a blog it had started to replace its own wiped website - how thoroughly it had been hacked. ''The overall magnitude of the tragedy and the loss of our information and yours is simply incalculable; and we are distressed by the actions of the parties responsible for this reprehensible act,'' it wrote.

Affected customers expressed sympathy but also anger.

''We've been dealing with them for three years, I know the owners personally and we've had zero communication from them,'' said Cheyne Johnstone, chief executive of VentraIP, one of Distribute.IT's largest customers, who had more than 8500 domain names hosted there. Although not erased, those domain names have been ''effectively frozen'' since June 11.

Marne Jakins, owner of a Queensland-based web design company for rural businesses, said her clients had been hit hard by the enforced downtime.

Milan Rajkovic of web hosting company Milan Industries, says he lost some of his own clients through the hacking episode. ''If your back-ups are gone, you're screwed. And obviously the disaster recovery plan they [Distribute.IT] had in place was not up to scratch.''

On Thursday web services company Netregistry announced it had ''acquired'' Distribute.IT. Netregistry chief executive Larry Bloch said he had no prior designs on a takeover, but the gravity of the crisis gave him no choice.

Netregistry's technicians are now salvaging what they can from the hard drives, prioritising the worst-affected customers.

Distribute.IT's former owners declined requests for an interview, but Mr Bloch said they were devastated and exhausted. ''This is just a tragedy for them.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/security/more-than-just-data-lost-in-cruel-hack-20110624-1gjj4.html#ixzz1RHzNd0ah

Animals-Domestic

UK FSA fines Zurich Insurance for customer data loss

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (August 25, 2010)

The UK's Financial Services Authority recently fined Zurich Insurance, a Swiss insurance company, the equivalent of $3.5 million for losing the sensitive, personal data of more than 46,000 customers.

There is currently no evidence that any of the data has been used illegally, but the loss of bank account and credit card information increases the possibility of identity theft and other crimes.

The data loss occurred when Zurich Insurance outsourced its data storage to its South African unit, but the group lost the backup tape containing the customer data. However, the company did not discover the data-leak prevention failure until more than one year later, which drove up the amount of the fine.

"Zurich UK let its customers down badly," Margaret Cole, the FSA's director of enforcement and financial crime, said. "To make matters worse, Zurich UK was oblivious to the data loss incident until a year later."

American regulatory organizations have also targeted financial firms in 2010 for failing to properly archive data. Most notably, the Financial Regulatory Authority fined investment bank Piper Jaffray $700,000 for failing to archive more than 4 million emails in a six-year span.

http://www.messagingarchitects.com/resources/security-compliance-news/email-security/uk-fsa-fines-zurich-insurance-for-customer-data-loss19930960.html

Hard Drive but No PC

Author: Lincoln Spector

PC World
Friday, April 16, 2010; 12:19 AM

Jen's PC died. All she has left is the hard drive, which contains three years worth of files. How does she get that back?

Depending on its age, the hard drive almost certainly has either an IDE or a SATA interface. Both of these are standard and easy to access.

All you need is an adapter that converts SATA or IDE to USB, which will essentially turn your old, internal drive into a temporary external one. The adapter will also need an AC power source.

The BYTECC BT-300 USB 2.0 Drive Mate makes a good choice. Nothing fancy, but it works.

Once the drive is plugged in, you can search its contents and copy the files you need.

Now for the lecture: If the hard drive had died rather than another part of the laptop, you'd be in a much more serious situation. You would have lost your photos, documents, and everything else on your PC.

You need to back up your hard drive--or at the very least the data folders--every day. The concept is simple: Never have only one copy of anything. See 7 Backup Strategies for Your Data, Multimedia, and System Files for backup options.

I corrected an error. My thanks to boden for pointing it out.

About the Author: If you have other tech questions, email them to me at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum.

A Comparison of Carbonite vs. Mozy Home Online Backup

Author: Travis Van Slooten

Comparing Carbonite and Mozy Home is like a match between two giants. They are two of the leading backup services currently operating. In this electronic age where almost all our important data is in digital format it is important that it is kept save and secure. Increasingly, cyber attacks and computer failures are putting our data at risk. Regular backups are a necessity of life. That is what these two companies provide.

So why only compare Carbonite vs Mozy Home? The answer is easy. These are the two most popular and widely used online backup services for home users right now. They dominate this market because they both are easy to use and very inexpensive. The real question is, which one is best? Let's take a look at some of the most important areas to evaluate when it comes to online backup and see how these two providers compare.

Cost & Storage Capacity

The amount of data you can backup online and the cost of doing so are probably the two areas of concern that come to mind immediately for home users contemplating which backup provider to choose. Both Carbonite and Mozy Home offer unlimited backup. It doesn't matter if you have a few files to backup or several thousand, you won't have anything to worry about with either provider. Carbonite offers one, two, and three year subscriptions. The one year subscription costs $54.95. Mozy Home offers a month-to-month plan and one and two year subscriptions. Their month-to-month plan costs $4.95/month while their one year subscriptions are $54.45.

Easy to Use

Carbonite and Mozy both offer a user friendly backup that, once it is setup, can be counted on to just do its thing without any interaction from the user. They both deliver on this offer quite well. Sometimes we read about user complaints on how long the initial backups take but this is going to be typical of any backup system you use. The size of the data and the speed of your internet are determining factors in this first backup. Even if you use a local backup to another hard drive, it may still take over night to finish. This is just the reality of backing up literally everything on your hard drive.

Even if it might seem that in this area both providers ensure equal services, Carbonite is more appreciate than Mozy Home due to the fact users like the simple interface of Carbonite more. Mozy Home interface offers more advanced settings which might seem attractive and interesting for computer geeks, but overwhelming for home users.

Security and Backup Process

Both Carbonite and Mozy Home secure your files via encryption. The files are encrypted before they leave the computer, thus are safe as they travel across the internet. They are stored in encrypted format on their servers, ensuring that they will not be subject to unauthorized access. Also, both of these services have a user friendly backup that can be automated or scheduled based on the needs of the customer.

File Restoration

Carbonite uses a standard process for restoring files which is activated simply by using the restore function in the software's desktop interface. With Mozy Home, you can restore your files using one of three methods: desktop interface restore, web restore, and DVD restore. It is also important to note that with both Carbonite and Mozy Home, restoring a large set of data and files can take a while so if you have 30GB of data to restore, don't expect to have it back on your computer within a few hours. Instead, it can take a few days.

Customer Support

When considering this area, home users think that both providers should make some improvements. There have been many comments and complaints for Carbonite and Mozy Home stating that the customer support is not as efficient as it should be. There are delays when handling queries and the information supplied is sometimes not enough. Still, Carbonite is more appreciated because it offers many ways to get in contact with the customer support service: phone, e-mail support and live chat. But, Mozy Home also offers live chat and e-mail support.

Summary of Carbonite vs. Mozy Home

Judging from the above feature-for-feature match up, Carbonite and Mozy Home are virtually identical in price and features so it's difficult to declare an absolute winner. Neither one is perfect but you shouldn't expect that when you're getting unlimited online storage for less than $5/month. For every customer that swears by Carbonite, there is one that swears by Mozy Home. The match up is virtually dead even.

The best way to find your right provider is to try their services and evaluate which one suits you best. They both offer affordable, attractive and cheap offers that are easy to test. Plus, Carbonite offers a 15-day free trial while Mozy Home a monthly alternative costing only $4.95. Test their services and decide on your own which one is the best!

About the Author: Travis Van Slooten is an expert Ezine Articles author who writes on a broad range of topics including weight loss supplements and electronics. For more information on online backup solutions, visit http://www.bestonlinestorage.com.

Data Backup

No matter, either you work in a small organization or a big corporate or even in your dwelling! Users who give importance to secure their hard disk data’s must have to concern about data backup. Keeping your data safe is really an essential process, because data loss will turn as a big headache. It is pretty well known that computers
easily turn vulnerable to virus defects, hard disk failure and other natural disturbances. Once when your system turns a prey to such troubles, data backup will grant you the stupendous support to retrieve the essential information. It is really advisable to act very smart before facing serious troubles. So, data backup is the prominent method of practice to retrieve and save the data’s in case of any hang-ups.

Basically data backup will mean various things for several users. Data backup could be taken either for directories, files, folders, server, LAN, or a particular dissection on your hard drive. At times, when your system turns vulnerable, it is really a tough task to get back the essential data’s. To land safe from the nightmare, data backup will be the best choice to overcome the troubles. Taking a data backup is merely simple! You can take your data backup in CD, USB memory stick, DVD, network drive and local drive. To give additional security, you can make use of the features of remote backup to stockpile the data’s written offsite.

Also, you can avail the accessibility of the remote data backup with the support of email or FTP. Generally, data backup is ultimately automated and it fundamentally functions similar to the usual backup software. Rather directing the backups into the tape drive, or to several different media computer, data backup will direct the backup safely via internet connectivity to other computer offsite. This process is completely automated and huge deal of business workouts that holds massive data storage has to be set with everyday data backup.

Also, with the greatest assistance of offsite data backup, you can avail the stupendous support to prevent any critical information on everyday basis. Data backup is an excellent method of practice that could be done at a reasonable price. Moreover, data backup can be practiced at several levels and standards to match the customer’s needs and requirements.

When considered finally, Data backup is a prominent practice that facilitates the computer users to retrieve essential data, when their system turns failure.

About the Author: http://www.backupexact.com specializes in online backup services and online storage services and off-site date storage.

How Data and Information Gets Lost and How To Recovery It

Author: Jacob Luis

Your observation of hazard and the fact of hazard are generally two diverse things. For instance, the system glitches and computer viruses more likely to cause data loss, while viruses cause poor system performance and they are not very likely to cause data loss whereas system glitches result into data loss in most of the cases. Backing up data on a regular basis, either to local hard drive or online storage system, is the best bet. It surely helps you to effectively handle data loss situations. But if no proper or complete backup exists, data recovery software is required to retrieve missing, lost or inaccessible data.

Hard Drive and System Issues
This is quite interesting thing that you can easily blame your system for the data loss and not so quick to blame yourself. In fact human error is a bigger factor of data loss than you would like to admit. In order to prevent software and hardware issues, you should use power backup and surge protector to keep the power steady and clean. File system corruption, hard drive crash, read/write head failure, virus infection, operating system malfunction, hard drive formatting and accidental deletion are some major cause of data loss. In all such cases, Hard Drive Recovery comes for your rescue.

Panic is an Aspect of Data Loss
User mistake is the major cause of data loss. There are some common things that user do, which make data loss situations more critical. When you guess data loss has struck, follow the underwritten steps:
* Panic is a general reaction and even the experience administrators can do wrong things in panic. Working without thinking may prove very dangerous for your data. Stop stressing about data loss and do not do anything to the damaged hard drive and your computer. * If you are hearing strange noises from your hard drive like scrapping and clicking, do not use any Data Recovery software on the hard drive. It could cause further damage and permanent data loss.
When all the preventive measures fail and data loss occurs, you are required to find out the cause of data loss and go for recovery solutions. If the problem is logical, it can easily handled using recovery software. On the other hand, physical data loss requires special help from Hard Drive Recovery professionals and corrupted file you need to use file recovery software.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the leading provider of superior recovery solutions to effectively handle most of the data loss situations. The recovery software are available for Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, Linux and Novell operating systems. Service is performed in Class 100 Clean Rooms using cutting edge technologies.

About the Author: Jacob Luis is a student of Mass Communication doing research on partition recovery. He is also a NTFS Data Recovery Specialist.

Lost Data: Here are some ways you can use for Data Recovery

Author: Mullwani

Once someone loses data, they have various things they can opt to do:

Use backups: If you have been keeping a good backup system, then recovery would be easy using it. Since a copy of the original information is stored on the backups, it is possible to retrieve data from them. This all depends on how effective your backup has been e.g. employing automatic backup at regular intervals, say after every hour. This means that recreating data from the backup would be less tiresome. But what if the backups are totally outdated? They will become almost irrelevant. Therefore, although data in backups could be reliable, it wouldn't be the most efficient way for data recovery. Also, what if both the backup and original information get destroyed?

Recreate the data from scratch: Others may opt to recreate data from scratch. If the data was not much then this would be a good option. But what if you are dealing with a large organization that has a data bank? One may not opt for recreation because it would need a lot of time and money. It has been found out that the estimated cost of recreating your data from scratch is $6000 per megabyte.

Perform personal data recovery: Most people may opt to do this to cut down the costs. They will look for personal ways and means to try and recover the lost data. With high costs of living and the current economy melt down, people are looking for the cheapest means of recovering their data. The internet offers so many do-it-yourself free data recovery software. Indeed, it is possible to try and recover data on your own by use of data recovery software but it may not be the best. You may end up doing more damage. Although the instructions are given, one may fail to understand some concept of the recovery and this may lead to permanent loss of data.

Employ data recovery services: This is by far the most preferable way of trying to salvage ones data. Statistics give it to us that data recovery services work about 80%-90% of the time. They are quite reliable in retrieving lost data. Data recovery experts are trained on procedures of retrieving your information.

More information about ways of data recovery follow the link

About the Author:

http://www.datarecovery.co.ke/

Stuff 101 - CD And 4 Other Types Of Backup Media

Performing a routine backup on all of your essential computer files is extremely important. The following article will explain the benefits of each type of backup media and will help you to decide which one is right for you.

Here are five different types of backup media:

1. Tape
Tapes will allow a backup of a large amount of files and this is the method which is most often used for businesses, even though it takes much longer to copy the files than other backup media.

2. CD
Backup on CD disks can offer a practical solution for data storage and a CD will store your files for years as their vulnerability to wear and tear are very low.

3. External Hard Drive
With the increasing capacity for backups, external hard disks are an easy and affordable means of backing up your important files. It most be noted that of all the backup media external hard drives are the most fragile.

4. USB Flash Drive
Ranging in capacity between 64 MB and 2 GB, these devices offer high data capacities as well as high data transfer speeds.

5. DVD
A DVD can hold between 4.7 GB and 9.4 GB and even more if the files are compressed. This makes a DVD both a feasible and practical media to backup your important files.

When choosing backup media you want to consider the following three things:

1. The size of the media (how many files it can hold)
2. The durability of the media (what will happen if the media is dropped)
3. The portability of the media (i.e. CD and DVD vs. external hard drive)

1. Size of the MediaWhen you are looking for a backup media, you should try to find something that can store more than your current file size. The reason being your files will continue to grow, so if you have 2 gigabytes of files on your computer today you can expect that to be doubled by next year. Of course you may not be backing up your whole system, so take a look at your important file to see how much space will be needed.

2. Durability of the MediaA very important feature of any backup media is its durability. By choosing quality backup media the chances of failures during a restore are much lower. For instance devices that have no moving parts such as a CD, DVD or USB flash drive are more durable in regards to damage from being dropped. External hard drives and tapes are the most fragile type of storage device and can be broken beyond repair if dropped. When choosing your backup media always make sure to compare the durability of each type of media.

3. Portability of the MediaBackup media is available in many different shapes and sizes, ranging from the size of a portable CD or DVD, to a USB flash drive which measure three square inches, right up to an external hard drive which can weigh up to five pounds. Remember in the event of a fire you can lose all of your important files, so it is always a good idea to store the media offsite so you will have a copy. If you are storing your backup media offsite, such as a safety deposit box, the size of the media will need to be considered. CD, DVD and tapes are perfect for this type of backup.

Whichever backup option you end up choosing, performing reliable backups of your important files is a good routine to get into.

About the Authors:
Corey Rozon and David Leonhardt are freelance ghostwriters in Canada, helping UK company Ketta.com to launch their blank CD and DVD or CD DVD vierge sales in France.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_634331_10.html

Three Steps To Better Security

Author: Joseph Simcic

There are dozens of things that you can do to protect your computer. People sell so many software packages and information products you may not be able to get a handle on all of it. Have you wondered to yourself what the basics are so that you can protect your identity and your data and so that you no longer have to worry?

I am not sure if we will ever get to a point that security is perfect and we never have to worry but we can get to a point of an increased security posture. That just means that we can take a few steps to help protect ourselves against the not so nice people in the world.

First if you have a computer you should turn on a local firewall. You may say, I am working behind one of those routers you can purchase from the electronics store, I am safe. There is a term in the field that is called defense in depth. There are many takes on what this actually means and how to implement it but I will be the first to tell you eavery extra security precaution you can take will be helpful in the effort to protect your identity and your data.

Each layer of defense will add to your protection. You may have a router but go ahead and turn on that software firewall that comes with your operating system too. Learn more about your computer so that you can be proactive. You never know when you might travel with that laptop and your software firewall saves you from an intrusion. Just be cautious.

Most people lock their doors at night before they go to bed or when they leave for work in the morning. Don't forget to lock the doors on your computer.

Second, you may consider installing a well proven anti-virus product. There are many packages on the market. Some you can get for free and others you can pay for. You need to determine your level of knowledge and how much support you may require.

There are many anti-virus vendors that are free that have been certified and protect your systems just as well as the pay for kind. The main difference is that you may get better support from the pay for kind. You may end up supporting the free kind on your own and having to do research on the net for answers. This is truly your call and should be congruent to your level of computer knowledge.

Anti-virus software should be a must. It has saved my system many times as well as friends of mine. I had a buddy that downloaded pictures form a digital camera that was infected with a virus. They can be anywhere. This is just another layer of defense you should consider in your quest to protect your identity and your data.

Third, you should consider backing up your system regularly. I am not talking about once a year either. I am talking about using CD, DVD, or an external hard drive and backing up your data daily, weekly, or at least monthly. This may not necessarily be a defense but it is a proactive measure that could save you tons of money and time.

I have known several people who have inadvertently gotten a virus on their computer lost tons of data and information such as pictures and music which were priceless and irreplaceable. They were able to save their data because they backed it up regularly. They may have lost a few days worth of data but they retrieved most of it back. They were quickly able to perform a desktop restore and get 90% of their data back.

Now one consideration is that if your data changes regularly you may want to consider backing up your data on a more frequent basis. The reason for this is if you have to perform a system restore or a file restore you want to be able to retrieve the most current data possible. Anyone out there can do this. There is backup software all over the web and 9 times out of 10 your computer probably has backup software built in that you can use for free.

The bottom line is that you should take measures to protect your data the same way you would protect your house or car. We too many times implement this on the physical world but forget to do the same for the digital world. There is a ton of information available for you to improve your knowledge and understanding of computer systems and how to protect your data and your identity. Don't become a statistic. Protect your data today.

Author Resource: Don't become a statistic. Backup your data. Discover how to perform system restores, learn how to backup files, and find out how to protect your data. Joseph Simcic has written this easy to read eBook so that you can download it now and start to backup your files.

Article From On Topic Articles

Computer Data Backups: Test Now or Cry Later

Author: Joshua Feinberg

If you're like most small business owners, your computer data backups are one of those things that you rarely pay attention to. Computer data backups are kind of like flossing your teeth and eating low-fat, high-fiber foods… everyone knows what they're supposed to do… but how many REALLY do these things religiously?!?

Unfortunately when it comes to your computer data backups however, complacency can be very dangerous. Of course, it's always a good idea to have a local computer service company that you can rely on for advice on selecting and maintaining your computer data backups. But, unless you're prepared to put a full-time PC support person on your company's payroll, it's really important that you get some basic understanding of the major issues with computer data backups.

So here's a compilation of some really crucial tips on computer data backups that I've put together, after nearly 15 years of helping small businesses protect their valuable computer data files.

Test your computer data backups regularly and monitor their log files.

To be effective, computer data backups must be highly automated to ensure that jobs are launched consistently and correctly, but your computer data backup system also needs to be watched over diligently to make sure it continues to function reliably.

Unfortunately, monitoring the computer data backup system generally isn't a priority until something goes wrong. By then it's too late…. Like the article title says, “Test Now or Cry Later!”

People have a strong tendency with a computer data backup system to set it and forget it. Automation clearly has many benefits, but a totally hands-off approach can be very dangerous if no one is overseeing your computer data backup process.

Test and Then Test Again: VERY Important with Computer Data Backup Systems

With any newly installed computer data backup system, don't assume everything works correctly right out of the box. Even more important, don't take for granted that your backup system will continue working indefinitely. You need periodically to restore some folders and files from your backup media to validate that your computer data backup system still works.

If your automated computer data backup routine is configured to include a verify run with each backup job, testing a sample restore job monthly should be adequate. However, if you have an extremely low tolerance for risk, you may want to simulate a sample restore job once a week.

The Hazard of Moving Parts and Open Design with Computer Backup Systems

Why do you need to take these precautions if you're purchasing a reliable, business-class computer data backup system to start with? Typically, a tape drive or other backup device is one of the few components in a PC or server that still have moving parts.

As a result, it's more prone to mechanical failure. In addition, because a backup device generally is open, as opposed to the sealed design of a hard drive, it's easy for the inside of the computer data backup system device to attract a significant dust buildup in a relatively short period of time.

Sample Restore Jobs and Cleaning Tape Heads of Computer Data Backup Systems

Testing a tape for a sample restore job is also a great time to clean the heads of the backup drive if your backup system requires this kind of maintenance.

Restoring a few hundred megabytes (MB) of data to a scratch directory and running a head-cleaning tape should take no more than 15 to 30 minutes.

When running a test restore job, always restore the data to an alternate server folder path, so as not to disrupt the use of any shared folders.

Building a Computer System Backup and Restore Procedure Checklist

In times of crisis, the most crucial issue becomes how quickly you can get the data back onto your system, undamaged. So, as you build your computer data backup system, be sure to document your test procedures into handy checklists.

This documentation also can be great for cross-training and crucial for avoiding panic during an emergency. Be sure you have a hard copy of this documentation next to your system and stored off-site with your backup media.

Watching the Log Files of Your Computer Data Backup System

In addition to running test restore jobs, you must inspect your computer data backup system log files daily. When the backup system is first installed, take time to get familiar with the way log files look when everything is working. This way, if something goes awry, you'll be better prepared to pinpoint the nature of the problem immediately.

As network operating system (NOS) suites and backup software have become more sophisticated, it's now possible to monitor backup system log files remotely and more proactively. In most cases, the backup system log files are just plain text (.txt) files.

Many third-party tools and utilities, as well as those included with Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server (SBS) and Microsoft BackOffice Server, can automatically e-mail or fax a backup system log file at a preconfigured time.

Automatically and Remotely Monitoring Tape Backup Log Files

Many computer consultants have their small business clients' log files automatically e-mailed to them daily, so the consultants proactively can watch out for potential problems with the computer data backup system.

However, don't think this proactive monitoring is limited to professional consultants. If your company has one or more branch offices you support from a centralized location, you also can use a similar method to monitor backup system health in remote locations.

For greater flexibility, you can set up an e-mail alias so the computer data backup system log file automatically is sent to you, your second-in-command and perhaps an external computer consultant - so you are all kept in the loop. Also, this way, monitoring continues even when you're out of the office or on vacation.

The Bottom Line

If your small business depends greatly on its computer systems, backing up your data is not optional… and it is not something that can be casually brushed to the back burner.

Use the computer data backup tips in the articles to help you become a more IT-aware small business owner. And remember, when it comes to computer data backups, "Test Now or Cry Later". The choice is yours.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, PCSupportTips.com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

About the Author:
Joshua Feinberg helps small business IT firms get more steady, high-paying PC support clients. Get free access to Joshua's field-tested, proven secrets for generating more recurring PC Support contact revenue now at http://www.PCSupportTips.com.

Backup Now So You Don't Cry Later

Is a data backup solution part of your computer plans? Do you have a way to protect yourself if something goes wrong with your computer or data? Computers are a useful part of our lives but we don't always protect ourselves from their loss be it fire, theft or hardware failure. We often don't consider how fragile our computer data really is. Do you keep sensitive information on your computer that you would be upset if you lost it? Not sure? Consider this. If I told you that I was going to format your hard drive right now and you will lose all of the information on your computer, would you be ready? Or would you need to get a few files first... If you are in the second group, chances are you don't have a proper data backup solution in place to help you handle disasters. What happens if your computers are stolen? I recently had a business colleague of mine who's office was robbed and who had all of his computers stolen. He naturally felt helpless and victimized over the situation. What was especially frustrating was that he thought he had taken the proper measures to secure his office. He had a good security system in place, had secured his premises and yet they were still able to cut his phone lines, disable his alarm and have their way in his office. Don't think a computer theft can happen to you? Guess again. It can happen to anyone even if you don't own a business. Computer hard drives do crash If theft doesn't get your computer, a hard drive failure certainly might. Hard drives are the devices in your computer that store the information on your computer. Your computers' long term memory if you will. They are built with rotating mechanical parts. These parts break down. If they break down, your data can be gone. Are you prepared? Data on a hard drive can often be recovered by expert data retrieval houses but their prices usually start at $10,000 and up. Want to avoid such costly recovering options? Establish a data backup solution. A fire can wipe out your computers and your data If computer theft or hard drive failure don't destroy the data on your computers, a fire certainly might. This threat speaks to an off site backup storage solution. While the first two can be averted by simply burning a CD of your most critical data, fire can destroy your CD's too if they aren't stored off site. Fire is just one more reason why a data backup solution needs to be a part of your vocabulary and your action plan. Protecting your data just makes good commonsense, if you have data that you don't want to loose and most of us do you owe it to yourself to protect your data.
About the Author
Joe Camarda is an expert on data storage and backup methods. Find out more about his expertise at http://www.westcliffassociates.com

What is the Best Method to Back up Data?

Author: James Walsh
This being the age of internet, chat rooms, blogging and innovative hackers, their expectation never gets fulfilled. The news always leaks out or is methodically publicised by a rival or a gleeful hacker. Thereafter, insult is added to their injury as irate customers and the eager press demand explanations about every unsavoury detail of the incident. But data loss is not a problem affecting only the big players only any more. All of us deal with some amount of data and almost all of it is important to us. Albums have been replaced by .jpeg files, our music is inside the hard drive of our pc or laptop, and our emails are stored in offline folders or software like Microsoft Outlook. Students keep their study material in their machines, and a doctoral thesis is usually a file on the hard disk instead of being a thick volume bound in leather covers. It is, therefore, strange that we keep losing data because we have not taken the precaution of backing it up elsewhere. Several start-up home businesses have not seen the light of the day anymore after an initial incident of data loss. All of this underlines the importance of backup, which really cannot be overstressed.
Some Methods of Obtaining Backups
The method, or rather, the medium chosen for backing up data will depend on the volume of data to be stored, as well as the nature of the data. Some common methods are being enlisted below:
CD and Floppy: The floppy has largely gone out of use by now, due to its many limitations, small capacity and security problems. The CD is a good choice for obtaining backups, and is one of the favourite choices in both domestic and corporate spheres. It is cheap, readily available, portable and compatible with several file formats. Storing a CD and sharing information from it are also quite simple.
DVD: The DVD is a good choice for storing audio visual information. It may not be as cheap as the CD, but offers better quality, often lasts longer, and has way more space. DVD RWs can be used in such a way that literally every bit is used to store information. A DVD also has the same facilities when it comes to sharing and easy transporting. However, the DVD RW, many market observers feel, may turn out to be an intermediate technology and be replaced by something superior but very similar in function, or may evolve in such a way that the problems would get solved. It must be noted here that the constant research in this regard, and inventions like the Blue Ray disk etc. point out that we can hope for a better technology soon.
USB Devices: These are the new favourites all over the world. The greatest proof of the popularity of this technology lies in two facts. Firstly, the storage space of pen drives / flash drives/ memory sticks is constantly increasing. Secondly, their prices are plummeting downwards rapidly. Almost all kinds of files can be stored on these; they are very easy to carry, do not require a separate software or booting up of the machine to start functioning, and it is very convenient to share the data stored on them. For storing smaller music libraries, an iPod may be an option too.
External Hard Drives: For larger data storage requirements, external hard drives are excellent solutions. Arrays or stacks of hard drives are available for corporate purposes and are provided by all good hard drive manufacturers. Seagate, Maxtor, ASB, LaCie all make external hard drives of varying capacities and prices.
Online and Offline Storage Spaces: These are ‘spaces’ provided by professional firms, and are extremely secure for sensitive data storage.
Tapes and Printouts: Traditional storage should not be left out of the list. There is some information that one simply needs to see on the good old piece of paper. Tape has been in use for a long time now, and will probably continue for some time.

About The Author:
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

The Advantages of An Offsite Server

Author: Jason R Davidson

It is necessary for all business to have some type of disk backup for their computer systems in case of a system failure or other computer disaster. However, the mass amount of information some business produce make normal disk backup impractical and cost prohibitive. Businesses with such issues often find that using Offsite Server Backup companies is the finest solution for this predicament.
Offsite Server Backup companies offer the same kind of back up technology that is available to most consumers. The main difference is, the Offsite Server Backup company has their own storage capacity and allows business to save the space needed for disk backup servers, and the expense involved with maintaining them.
The most common type of Offsite Server Backup is done with cloning or mirror technology. However, when using mirror technology with an Offsite Server Backup company, the information is not saved in real time as it is when the technology is used on-site, directly connected with a computer or network. Although this may seem like a downside to using an Offsite Server Backup, in truth it can be easily remedied by having employees save their work periodically on disk drive or thumb drive.
In order for an Offsite Server Backup company to copy your system information properly at the end of each day, an on-site visit will be made by the Offsite Server Backup company. This company absorbs all the cost of installing the correct system and maintaining the system, while the company who hires them simply pays a monthly fee based on the amount of data that needs to be stored.
An Offsite Server Backup company does all the work and your company simply lets the Offsite Server Backup company know what its needs are. The monthly cost is based on gigabyte space and can be adjusted by your company monthly as needed, or if needed. This flexibility means that your company need never have more space reserved than needed and does not have the expense of upgrading equipment as it grows.
This is a practical back up solution for a smaller company as well. It intends to grow, of course, but that takes time. Rather than disburse the cost of constantly updating a system for a growing company, or buying a system that that is too big for the company, an Offsite Server Backup company offers the most cost effective and practical solution for the small business.
Further more using an Offsite Server Backup company for either small or large businesses, means that the business in question will not have to employ an expert to maintain the system, rather the Offsite Server Backup company provides those services as well due to the fact that the equipment belongs to them.
No matter how you slice it, an Offsite Server Backup company is a cost-productive solution to growing businesses and provides a service beyond what a business could do for themselves, with much less cost.

About the Author:
Jason R Davidson owns and operates http://www.diskbackupreview.com Visit us to find out why it is vital that you have a robust Disk Backup strategy in place, even if you're just a home user and why it will become even more vital in the future.

Retrieving Data With Hard Drive Recovery Software

Author: Ken Roberts
Hard drive recovery is a real possibility for anyone who uses a computer. Even when you take every precaution to avoid it, the day usually comes when you have to face it head on. Maybe that's now? Now for the solutions.
Using hard drive recovery tools
Hard drive recovery software is usually the first place people turn to solve their hardware recovery issues.
You can usually find low-end products for common data problems like deleted files.Then there are the complex hard drive recovery tools for more difficult situations like RAID data recovery. Nine times out of ten your problem falls somewhere in the range of these two extremes.You can use free hard drive software to retrieve a deleted file. But there are usually only a handful of situations attached to this sort of drive recovery software to get a successful recovery. But don't take my word for it - try it yourself and you will know what I mean.
Low-cost hard drive recovery products can be used to resolve a deleted file problem. And it can handle some other problems too as long as the file system is still intact. If you are dealing with any situation where the components have been altered, you will need a more complete data recovery software.
It is not easy to tell one level of hard drive recovery software from another ' especially if you are unclear what to search for in the first place. This confusion stems from the fact that so many low-end recovery products claim to produce the same results as the more powerful products: recovering deleted, lost, corrupt and damaged files. But they forget to state in the fine print that they cannot recover anything when the file system has been changed.
The real question is...
Where do you look for the right data recovery software? Unless you can decipher all the confusing technical terminology - i.e. file system corruption, damaged data, boot and partition table repair, and so forth - then you really won't know. The bottom line is, if data recovery is important to you, skip the child's play and head directly to the surest data recovery software.
How do I know what that means?
"Real" recovery software do recover data for just about everything except a dead hard drive. Yes, there are priced higher than the undelete tools, but you do want your data back, right? Expect to give up at least $75 to $120 for any recovery beyond undelete.
For the technicians
The hard drive utilities that are reliable will offer a variety data recovery operations. For example, try to recover or rebuild a partition using the partition repair function. When the results aren't what you want change functions. If that doesn't work, you could switch to file recovery. Say that doesn't do anything. If you understand how the file system works, you can use a manual editor to rebuild the file system.
Giving your drive to a local computer shop
Sometimes help is needed. If you are unable to solve your data recovery problems, or if you just don't want to deal with recovery by yourself, you have two solutions: using the local computer shop or the recovery expert.
You may decide to use a local technician because they are so easy to locate and are cheaper compared to going with a expert service. Unless the technician you are considering is able to use a sector imaging utility which produces a backup of your primary hard drive to a different one - think strongly about walking away!
Keep in mind, you usually get a single chance to recover data. That is why experts advise that you get the second sector-copy of your of your hard drive. That way the recovery can be tried on the second sector-copy as many times as is needed with no damage to your original drive.
Expert recovery services
Hard drive recovery specialists handle nothing but data recovery and data forensic cases. They are skilled experts at safely recovering data in just about any situation. In fact, they may not even be located in your city or state. So you will probably need to ship your drive directly to a hard drive recovery firm for repair. This is not unusual because of the major investment is cost for clean room and data recovery technologies, and the experts it takes to utilize them.
Whatever you decide
Always take the safest road to recovery when it comes to data recovery to avoid losing your files for good. Avoid disassembling the drive - this can and will destroy data instantly without the right clean room environment. Why not give a recovery utility a go. If you find that your only choice is to use a hard drive recovery service, make sure a sector clone is performed before any recovery software is used; then hard drive recovery software can be used.

About the Author:
Getting good hard drive recovery information is difficult with all the sales-pitching going on out there. Ken Roberts cuts through the chase to give you the info you want and need. His advice is often sought after because of his two decades of experience in data recovery. You can get more information at http://www.atl-datarecovery.com./ Want to interview Ken? He's available at 800-444-3225

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/retrieving-data-with-hard-drive-recovery-software-456837.html

The Importance of Data Backup Reporting

Author: Dina Schultz
The cliche "it will never happen to me" happens to most people. When it comes to computer data loss or corruption, you do not want the aforementioned clichй realized. If you do not have an adequate and reliable product for your computer data storage and backup system, your business or work is at risk, from the ground up. The good news is that there are companies that can improve the way you backup, as well as the overall security and reliability of your computer system.
Among the best companies to help increase the security and reliability of your data backup system are web-based companies that are highly knowledgeable about data backup reporting software. With the right storage and backup software, the increase in security and reliability can be instantaneous. By enlisting the help of a knowledgeable software company, you can ensure adequate protection for your important computer documents and never have to worry about computer data loss or file corruption again.
When looking for a company that can supply the data backup reporting software you need, remember to choose one that can offer quality, personalized service to help you choose the right products for your computer. Some businesses have very expensive and time-wasting products on the market that offer a range of features you may or may not need. The company you select should offer you reliable and fully featured products that you specifically need at affordable prices.
Learn what the company is providing you before you enlist its service. Is the company providing you with a full view of the SAN storage environment that allows you to see applications, storage arrays, and hosts? If you are unsure what features you are getting, the company should be available to answer your questions and provide you a demo version or free trial of its data backup reporting software.
If you are looking for more information or products for backup data reporting, visit APTARE.com. This web-based company provides high quality software for storage administrators to achieve maximum data protection.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dina_Schultz

Computer Backup - A Safety Net

Author: Zane Horton
Computer backup is the storing of copies of files on a medium that is separate from the hard drive. The key that protects personal, business and financial files is backup software. Backing up computer data has become a necessity in that the volume of data processed by personal computers has increased so much.
Data backup is something that is thought about but seldom done. Ignoring computer backup is inviting a disaster to happen. Backing up of the hard drive is the duplication of those files, photos, or documents to a local computer with another partition, external hard drive, DVD or CD. For a permanent storage backup to optical media like a DVD or CD is definitely the best option. The life span of media like DVD and CD is in years, but magnetic media like a hard drive, floppy disks or tape can be easily corrupted by any magnetic field that comes close to the storage medium.
Computer backup software helps users to create backup files that can be restored with ease if needed. Data backups should be saved in two or more locations. Data corruption or loss can occur in many ways, including hardware failures, power outage, fire, theft, vandalism, or accidental erasure. A poorly written program can also damage data files.
Data that is manually entered or created with a program is the prime candidate for backup. If backup space is limited be sure these files are backed up. Program and system files can be reinstalled if necessary from original disks.
If there is a chance of theft or vandalism an external hard drive connected to a local network, either wired or wireless, should be used. This external hard drive should be mounted in a place that is not visible from the computer location, such as another room or closet. An external hard drive that is out of sight is less likely to be stolen or vandalized.
Computers are here to stay. Protect data that would be hard to enter again, like photos, important documents and system settings. Just remember that it's not a matter of if it's going happen, but when. Make a backup before installing any program just in case something goes wrong. Do not use a scheme that the backup will overwrite an older backup, but use a scheme that creates a new backup each time. There may be a time when the older backup must be used.

About the Author: Zane Horton has 45 years in the computer industry and is well versed in computer security.
Visit his website http://www.computersecurityshop.com for security questions.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zane_Horton

Data Backup Service!

Author: Kirthy Shetty

Get your confidential data secured with the help of fully automated back up. Such automated back ups can eliminate the need for traditional tape based back up solutions. Data is stored in remote mirrored locations for resilience. If the back-up is too large to transfer over the available bandwidth, a snapshot is created and saved to a physical device, which is then uploaded to the back-up platform.

Data back up and Recovery!

The backup process starts after the installation and registration of backup software on the user's system. The backup process automatically detects important data files that are located anywhere on your hard disk and creates a backup set. You can fine-tune your backup set by adding and deselecting files and folders.

Back ups are quick and efficient, even over a dial up connection!After the file selection is made you can initiate the backup process at any time. The initial backup will be the most time consuming since you must transfer all of your files to the data center. Online backup process has features such as Send-Once technology and file compression to perform this transfer as efficiently as possible. Easy backup utility unlike the conventional back up makes your backup process quick and very easy to perform. The Backup Solution software can store multiple versions of each file backed up during the last three months. This backup restore utility allows you to quickly restore a prior version of a file if an accident occurs overwriting a file template without changing the name.

Our scheduled, unattended backup process assures that backup occurs regularly and with certainty. Our backup software is smart enough to tune the backup process, it can happen automatically on a schedule, can be initiated by the users, or can be configured to occur in the background whenever a traveling computer is connected to the Internet.

What happens in case of emergency?
If data from your computer, laptop, PDA or mobile phone is ever lost, stolen or corrupted, Data back up and recovery ensures that there is always a current copy available for immediate retrieval. All you have to do is simply select the data you want to restore, be it a single document, digital photos, music files or your entire hard drive, then select OK and watch a copy instantly return to your computer. It's that easy. Such data back up services automatically archives 30 previous copies of your data, so if you ever get a virus, you can go back in time and retrieve a clean copy that was made before the attack. Try online to find out how you can get your data recovered on time.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/data-backup-service-358182.html

Local Vs Remote Data Backup - The Pros And Cons

Author: Niall Roche

Backing up your data should be an essential part of your daily routine. Unfortunately for many businesses this simply isn't the case. The only time data backup crosses their mind is when they have a hard disk crash or a serious spyware or virus infection. Unfortunately by this stage it's already too late to do anything about it - the data is gone and you're then looking at several hundred, if not several thousand, dollars to have the data rescued and restored.
The concept is simple - choose a data backup plan and stick to it.
The burning question on most IT managers minds is should the data be stored locally or remotely? To be fair this is the pivot point of all data backup plans. There are pros and cons to each method.
Local Data Backup
Most companies rely on either DVD, external hard disk or tape drive data backup solutions locally. These provide fast, cost effective storage for most small companies and are also very easy for even the IT novice to operate. In the case of any data being lost it's simply a matter of restoring the data from a previous backup point and the user can then continue working.
The data, however, is only as safe as the building it's in. What happens in the case of fire, burglary, flooding or storm damage? That's right you just lost all your data backups in the blink of an eye.
Remote Data Backup
As an emerging industry remote data backup has really taken off. Most commonly remote file backup services allow you to log into a remote drive and via a web based interface upload all your critical files. 5GB of storage space is the entry point for most of the remote data backup services and this is provided at a low cost. Knowing that your data is being stored in a secure facility that's deliberately protected against harm allows you much greater peace of mind.
The weak point here however is the data transfer speed. Unless you're operating a high speed LAN in your company then remote backup can be a complete waste of time as you're tied to the maximum upstream speed of your network - which can be surprisingly slow depending on your IT infrastructure. Add in the issue of firewalls blocking uploads on certain ports and it can quickly become a real IT headache.
So how do achieve a Win-Win scenario? Blended backup! Look at utilizing both of these forms of backup. In an ideal world you'd store a local copy of your data and then upload an exact copy of that data to the remote file backup server. If money is an issue then store your bulk data locally but copy your mission critical data to the remote backup service. That way in the worst of disasters you'll still have the data you need to actually function as a business. That's not to say that bulk data such as archived email is not important but that old data could be recovered in time by a data recovery specialist whereas you mission critical data needs to be available at a moments notice.

This article was written by Niall Roche and provided courtesy of BackupAdvice.com If you want to know more about computer backups this site is full of useful information.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche

Data Loss Effects on Different Types of Companies

Author: Mark Robin

No one can contradict the fact that how the data loss can severely impact the companies. But this is not necessary that this impact is same for all of them. Let us say any R&D company has suffered hard drive crash then due to having some confidential data related to the new inventions, this is hard for it to trust on any of the data recovery service provider company.

So this becomes a hard and fast rule for that company that to choose the one which is reliable and has been known for the same from decades. This will let the R&D companies to be sure that the data will remain confidential and the success of the data recovery operations is guaranteed.

Some R&D projects take several years to get completed. So loosing any of the information about the projects is not at the money level but this also the time loss that the developers have spent.

The banks and financial institutions are running their business based on the millions of transactions each day. Now let us suppose that a person wants to invest $ 2000 in the stock market but due to the present data loss problems in the stock brokerage company, he/she can't do so. If the company deals with approximately 100 transactions each day then the total loss would be $ 20000 per day until the data recovery is not done. Thus the longer it takes for data recovery, the larger it will loose.

A customer only puts his/her money in your financial institution if he or she trusts your company and if that gets lost then this costs at price of the market reputation of the institution. Such types of data loss incidents will make the customer to doubt your trustworthiness and he or she is bound to take his or her business elsewhere.

For the film and advertisement companies, lot of time, money and efforts are required. There is a use of lot of external technical expertise and resources that cannot be replicated easily. If some film or advertisement copy is lost then that would mean losing all the financial resources that went into making that copy. As lot of money has been spent in producing the movie but a silly data loss incident can convert this expenditure into large financial losses and no benefits.

So as proved from the above examples, the data loss can affect in several of the ways to the company based on the works that the company performs and the type of information it possess. So the relevance of data recovery runs the uniform kinds of issues for them. However the way outs for uncovering the data loss is unique for all i.e. data recovery software for logical data loss and data recovery services for the physical data loss.

Seeking the confidential matters and safety aspects of the data, the reliability of the data recovery software and guarantee of the data recovery company that they will go for keeping the data confidential is the primary facet to be seen. So better choose according to your needs.

Stellar Information System Ltd. is a data recovery company which fulfills all your data recovery needs. The data recovery software are available for operating systems like Windows, Macintosh, Linux, UNIX and Novell. They perform a systematic scan of your hard drive and fetch your data from it. These data recovery software do not alter the data even a bit and retrieve them intact.

Data recovery service by Stellar is provided in the Class 100 Clean Room where apt surroundings are given to the failed hard drive. Stellar assures you that your data will remain just under your limits and will not leak at all after data recovery by its experts.

The data recovery experts are well qualified and experienced and carry out the best procedures for the data recovery.

About the Author: Mark Robin a student of Mass Communication doing research on data recovery software. He is also a freelancer for http://www.stellarinfo.com