DMANd Security » Business Continuity

Easy Offsite Backups

Joe Lofshult — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:37:06 +0000

Just plug in one of these disk docking stations to a USB port on your computer and you’ll be ready to backup your computer anytime you need. Put a disk drive in the docking station, run your backup, remove the disk and take it home or lock it in a fireproof safe. Now you’ve got a secure backup of your PC.

If you buy a few disks, you can get a rotation going so you always have more than one backup in case one fails or you discover you’ve been infected with a virus. It’s a good feeling to know you have more than one backup you can go to just in case.

The company that makes this docking station also has some new options that look pretty useful.

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How To Choose A Data Recovery Service

Joe Lofshult — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:13:53 +0000

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve lost a critical file or a bunch of important files, whether due to accidental deletion, virus infection, operating system corruption, or hard disk failure, it’s no fun.

No, it’s worse than no fun. It really SUCKS!

If you have a recent backup you can recover the files from then you’re not in too bad a situation, and you’re better off than most people. If you’re not backing up your system, I listed some backup tools here.

If, however, you do not have a backup you’ll need to make a decision about what to do next. Should you call a professional to recover the files or not?

The answer is “it depends.”

I’m sorry there’s not a more cut and dry answer to this, but it really depends on how much the file is worth to you or your business. Data recovery can be expensive, so you’ll need to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine how much you’re willing to pay to have the file recovered.

If all your customer data is on the drive and you can’t operate your business without it (or it will hamper your business significantly), then you’ll probably be willing to pay just about anything to recover the files. However, if the drive contained family photos that have sentimental value, you may not place as much monetary value on them and will probably be willing to pay less for their recovery.

Choosing a Data Recovery Service

If you decide to call on a professional data recovery firm, here are some things to consider:

Are they local or will you have to (or will they) send your drive out of town for recovery? When analyzing data recovery firms, verify they really are local if they say they are. Some firms customize their web sites to appear they are local, but actually do the recovery somewhere else.
Are their prices posted on their web site? If they’re not willing to post their prices, watch out.
Will they give you an estimate of the recovery charge after their initial assessment of the drive? They should be willing to give you an estimate of what it will cost to recover your data and agree to get your permission before exceeding their estimate.
If they can’t recover anything from your drive, will they still charge you a fee? Data recovery firms should not charge you if they can’t recover any data.
Do they specialize in data recovery? Data recovery can be tricky. If it is done wrong, your data may be lost forever.
How will they return the recovered data to you? Do they give you options for the media they can return (DVD, external hard drive, original drive, CD, etc)?
Can they perform the recovery on-site? If you have sensitive data (confidential personal information, credit card numbers, etc), you may not be willing (or able) to send this information off-site.
Can they do sophisticated hardware recovery (or coordinate on your behalf with a vendor that can) if normal recovery methods do not work? Sometimes the media has been damaged to an extent that normal recovery techniques will not work and more sophisticated methods are required. A recovery firm should be willing to work on your behalf to get an estimate for you and coordinate the recovery if you choose.
Can they recover data from the media that is of interest to you? Sometimes its not a hard drive you’re interested in. It may be a camera, MP3 player, cell phone, thumb drive, or something else. Make sure the data recovery firm has the capability to recover files from that media.

These are some of the things to consider when searching for a data recovery firm. If you have questions on the subject, please leave me a comment or send me an email.

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Computer Security 101: Laptop Security

Joe Lofshult — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:23:41 +0000

With over 600,000 laptops stolen or lost each year (at airports alone), it is important to take the following steps to protect confidential data on your laptop.

Laptop Theft Prevention

Of course, what you really want is to not have your laptop stolen in the first place. Here are some preventative measures you can take to deter someone from running off with your laptop:

Keep it with you when traveling – Don’t check your laptop. Don’t leave it alone in an airport in an obvious laptop bag.

Don’t leave in your car – If you have to keep it in your car, put it in the trunk or under a back seat (especially if you have tinted windows).

Engrave it – Permanently engraving your name, address, and phone number greatly increase the odds of you getting your laptop returned if it gets lost.

Get a cable lock and use it – Cable locks cost less than $40 and will deter casual thieves, even though they won’t stop determined thieves with bolt cutters. You should keep your laptop locked while in a hotel room or while resting in an airport. You may also want to keep it locked down in your office to keep it from walking off.

If Your Laptop Is Stolen or Lost

If, despite your efforts, your laptop does get stolen, you’ll want to know (a) if you can recover your laptop, (b) that the data on your laptop is safe, and (c) you have that data somewhere else so you can get back to work.

Track your laptop – There are several services available that will help track your laptop if it is lost or stolen and aid in the recovery. Some of the services available are Computrace Lojack, MyLaptopGPS, and Trackion. There is also a free, open-source project being developed called Adeona.

Have a backup – Make sure you are using an online or offline backup utility on a regular basis to enable you to recover your data in case of a theft, a hard disk crash, or just an accidental deletion.

Encrypt your hard disk – If you are concerned about sensitive data being stolen from your laptop, you should use encryption. You can either encrypt the entire hard disk, encrypt just the sensitive files, or use an encrypted folder in which you store that sensitive files. I would suggest whole disk encryption since the other options can still leave traces behind that a determined attacker might find.

There are several commercial tools available to encrypt your hard disk from vendors such as PGP, Check Point, McAfee, and BitArmor. There is also the free tool that is my choice, TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt can encrypt your entire hard drive while you are still using it. It will then present you with a password screen at startupto allow the system to boot. With all of these solutions, the security of your system relies on you choosing strong passwords.

Easy Offsite Backups Just plug in one of these disk docking stations...

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9 Ways to Secure Your Business in 2009

Joe Lofshult — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:24:47 +0000

Make 2009 a better year for you by taking these actions to protect your computer against crashes, hacks, and viruses.

Make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software installed. Schedule automatic or real-time scans so you don’t have to remember to run them. If you don’t have anti-virus software, try the free one from AVG.
Apply all patches from Microsoft or Apple. Turn on automatic patch updating so you always get the latest security patches.
Update or install anti-spyware software. Check out Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy for some excellent free options.
Stop using Internet Explorer. Switch to a more secure browser, like Firefox, Google Chrome, or Flock.
Start using stronger passwords that are harder to guess. Use tools like PasswordSafe and Roboform to help you manage and remember them.
Disable WEP on your wireless network. Ensure you are using a recent wireless card and access point that supports WPA.
If you accept credit cards, make sure you aren’t keeping any more data than you absolutely need. Also, check with your merchant processor to find out what your PCI compliance requirements are.
Check your payment applications to ensure they are listed as PA-DSS compliant.
Backup your data. It’s the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your business against disaster. I’ve written recently about backups here and here.

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Protect Your Online Business

Joe Lofshult — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:34:19 +0000

Don’t get caught off guard if your web hosting company goes out of business or your web server crashes. If you rely on your web site to bring you business, and especially if your business is primarily online, you need to make sure you have a backup of your site.

Five Reasons You Need a Backup

Your web server crashes
Your web hosting company’s data center experiences a disaster
Your web hosting company goes out of business
A hacker breaks into your web server and defaces your site or installs malicious code
You accidentally delete critical data

Is Your Web Hosting Company Backing Up Your Data?

You should contact your hosting company and

Ask if they are backing up your system
Ask if they test their back ups to ensure they can be restored
Ask if they are keeping their backups off-site to protect against disaster
Ask what their service level agreement is for restoring your data. For example, if their site goes down, how long will it take them to recover the site?

Back Up Your Own Web Sites

Even if your hosting company says they’re backing up your site, if you want to be sure it’s being backed up, your best bet is to do it yourself. This way if your site goes down, the hosting company goes out of business, or you just decide you want to move your site to a different company, you’re prepared.

If you’re site is only made up of static HTML pages and images, you’ll just need to download those files using your favorite FTP utility. My personal favorite is Filezilla.

If, however, your site is a blog or an e-commerce site, your site probably uses a database. In this case, you’ll need to make a backup of the HTML files as noted above, and you’ll need to download a copy of the database.

To backup your database, you’ll need to log in to the administrative site your web hosting company provides. WordPress.org provides a very nice guide on how to backup and download your database.

What About Your Hosted Blogs?

If you’re hosting your blog at one of the free blog sites like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, or Yahoo360, you have no guarantee they will be backing up your site.

To be sure, your best bet is to keep a copy of each of your blog posts on your local hard drive. You can do that by writing your post on your computer and then copy/pasting it to your blog when ready. Or, you can write your post on your blog site and then visit your page and save it to your computer with File->Save Page As…

In addition, LiveJournal allows you to export all your LiveJournal entries and download them to your hard drive. Blogger offers instructions for backing up your Blogger blog, and WordPress provides utilities for you to export your blog so you can download your posts to your PC.

How Often Should You Back Up?

How often you back up your site really depends on how often your site is updated. It’s a matter of how much data you feel comfortable losing. For an active e-commerce site, you probably need a daily back up. However, for a personal blog, a monthly backup might be appropriate.

In my opinion, it’s always better to err on the side of backing up more frequently than you think you need.

While making a backup may seem tedious and time consuming, you’ll thank your lucky stars if you ever need to recover your site.

Do you back up your site? What kind of site do you have and how often do you make your back ups?

Easy Offsite Backups Just plug in one of these disk docking stations...

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