Data Leaks For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Backup and Archiving

In This Chapter

• Identifying the issues of data loss in terms of backup

• Using encryption with offsite backup data

• Appreciating where data loss can occur in a backup environment

• Recognizing how an archive can help ameliorate data loss

Backup is a simple idea: You regularly take a copy of the information that's important to you and store it somewhere safe. In the event of a disaster, you can recover the copy and continue to work.

Backup technology has changed over the years; while the data is still stored on tape, it's also stored on inexpensive disks and on other media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs. Either way, the outcome is the same: The data is safe and secure, and can easily be recovered.

From a data-loss perspective, backup is a potential nightmare. This chapter looks at ways to exercise due care and pay some security-aware attention to the backup environment.

Backup: The Easiest Way to Lose Critical Data

It used to be said that the easiest way to carry out corporate espionage was to steal the backup tapes. Nowadays, the same is true, but general data loss has become a much more pervasive issue — and losing customer data has consequences that are just as bad as those of losing corporate information — if not worse.

Backup is designed to capture all the company's important information and keep an easily managed copy for use when needed. The change in technology — from tape to an interim backup on disk — means end-users are now allowed to restore their own files ...