What will you lose in your next disaster
disaster recovery has always been a key concern in virtually all companies. But the widespread damage last year from Hurricane Katrina has companies re-evaluating their planning, procedures and overall systems to make sure they can survive a major outage . The bottom line is that these days, wherever data resides, it must be protected. With this idea as the driving force, companies are looking for new and easier-to-manage ways to safeguard company databases, records and files . When a disaster does strike, be it a fire, a flooded data center or a catastrophic malware attack companies need to take several steps to reduce downtime and get operations back to normal. Naturally, a restoration plan should be in place before any disaster occurs.
PSA: Managing Stress in Your Relationships After a disaster
This is a very hard time for everyone. You may feel sad, angry, lost, or stressed
The Components of a Good disaster Recovery / business Continuity Plan
The disaster Recovery / business Continuity Plan is a critical document. Lack of clarity will invariably result in time being wasted and, as already mentioned in this document, time is an extremely valuable commodity. The disaster Recovery / business Continuity Plan should make clear: Activation Who is responsible for making the decision to put the disaster Recovery / business Continuity Plan into action? Who is responsible for should that person be unreachable? What information will need to be provided to that person? Who will provide that information? How will teams be notified? Recovery How will each critical process and system be recovered? Who is responsible for performing recovery operations? Do particular processes or systems need a diversity of recovery options? Who will decide that option to implement? That elements of the recovery process could or should be outsourced? What elements will need coordination and contact with other teams? To what alternative sites could operations be relocated? Who is responsible for coordinating the recovery process? Who needs to be notified when a system is recovered? Who is responsible for making that notification? Rebuilding Once the emergency recovery process is complete, what needs to be done in order to restore completely normal operations? Contacts What are the names and contact information for key personnel? For vendors and suppliers? For contractors to that functions have been outsourced? For offsite storage?
Backup Policy for Active Directory Defined
Active Directory is the gatekeeper to the network resources your employees depend on, so Active Directory is critical to your business. Accordingly, having a reliable and practiced set of recovery strategies is vital. Preparing for a catastrophic event - for example, a hardware failure or physical disaster is necessary, but so is preparing for “everyday disasters.” Problems can arise in the normal course of day-to-day operations from a variety of causes, including: Human error - an administrator might delete an entire organizational unit (OU) instead of a particular user, or accidentally delete a service account, which could affect hundreds of users. Unexpected consequences - an administrator might use a script to set one of the Extension Attributes in Active Directory only to find out that Extension Attribute contained data for another mission critical application that won t work anymore because of the changes. The data must be restored as soon as possible. Malicious activity - both current and recently-terminated employees, as well as external service providers, might find ways to access your sensitive systems and data, and their knowledge can enable them to cause significant damage. According to Entrepreneur, “four out of five IT-related crimes are committed from within an organization”. Moreover, CSO Online reports that “inside security breaches affect 49% of companies”. Once your network is under attack, it’s too late to plan - you need to have your diagnostic and recovery tools in place. Viruses - Viruses can damage Active Directory data, and the replication process propagates those unwanted changes. Anti-virus software, of course, provides protection, but it is critical to be able to respond quickly to viruses that get through.
RFID chips will eventually be combined with GPS technology
(Computerworld) — Imation Corp. today announced a first-of-its-kind tracking technology that could put an end to the ongoing problem of lost data tapes by using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking systems to remotely locate cartridges, no matter where they are — stationary or in transit. Imation said it will begin shipping its RFID tape-tracking technology in April. The technology embeds RFID chips in standard tape-cartridge labels, allowing them to be scanned either individually with a handheld device or by placing cases with up to 20 tapes inside on a scanning pad. While the GPS tracking system will not be part of the initial product launch next month, over the next two months, Imation plans to announce when GPS technology will be available in order to locate cartridges no matter where they are.
Erasing Files Is A Must For Secrutiy
When you delete a file from your hard disk, it may seem as if it is gone forever In truth, however, this is not the case. You must wipe it clear “serveral” times or someone can find traces of the data that was there orginally.The reason why file deletion is not as thorough as it can be is a simple one; resource management. Actually overwriting every bit of every file that is to be deleted will use more resources than would be practical, for everyday use. And in fact, this simple file deletion is usually sufficient for the basic user s needs.The seemingly permanent process of file deletion actually leaves the file data still on the hard disk. When a file is deleted, it is simply marked deleted , and the space that it occupies on the disk is accordingly marked ready for use . Hence, it may be overwritten when more disk space is required, but this is by no means certain, unless the entire hard disk is filled with data.Now, the actual data that make up the file is still on the hard disk, even after deletion. This makes it available for recovery, usually done using specially designed data recovery programs. MSDOS, in fact, has a built-in UNDELETE command which may recover recently deleted files.However, secur ity considerations might necessitate the complete erasure of a given hard disk or collection of hard disks. When reassigning hard disks, for instance, or switching computers around, confidential data might need to be deleted. To lessen the possibility that this data is recovered, a hard disk wipe may be performed.When a hard disk wipe is performed, the entire area of the hard disk is actually overwritten with random data. This means that the data that used to be on the hard disk becomes much harder (practically impossible) to recover after such a process. Almost no traces of the previous data that used to be on the disk is left, making a hard disk wipe a secure improvement upon ordinary file deletion.The metadata or information on the data that used to be on the hard disk is also wiped clean, since the entire space of the hard disk is overwritten. The randomness of this data used to overwrite depends on the algorithm used to generate it. Some hard disk wipe programs give users the choice to select the algorithm they want the program to use. However this is not as necessary for hard disk wipe programs as it is for file shredder programs, which wipe individual files. This is because when it is the entire hard disk that is wiped, the degree of randomness of the overwriting data is not anymore as important.Performing a hard disk wipe is often as easy as clicking a few buttons in a specially designed hard disk wipe program. Some programs are set to run automatically when a CD containing the program is placed into the computer containing the hard disk to be wiped. This makes it easier to perform batch wipes on many computers at once, and makes the hard disk wipe a feasible security solution for multiple hard disks.
PSA: Preventing Mold After a disaster
When rain or flood waters get into your building, take steps to prevent mold growth
fema erected tents serving as it’s operations headquarters in Galveston (ID: 38876)
Galveston, TX, September 25, 2008 — The stars and stripes flying over newly constructed office tents at the fema Galveston airfield base camp. These safe and secure temporary housing areas can be erected and ready for use in a matter of hours. Mike Moore/fema
PSA: Evacuating the Area of a Hurricane
If a hurricane warning is issued for your area, or authorities tell you to evacuate, take only essential items
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