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I am writing this for small business owners but it can also be usefull to the regular user who is concerned of loosing their data due to any number of natural and un-natural causes.
I am sure by now we all have heard of the virus that attacked on febuary 3rd. It was intended to go off sequentially on the 3rd of every month thereafter, so it is quite possible it is sitting dormant on some of your powered down systems just waiting to strike. Some people might feel over confident that their anti-virus programs will always be there to protect them. This is a common mis-conception that has produced a number of problems with some of my clients in the past.
I personally quit using anti-virus programs a while ago, just because they seem to cause more problems than they do good, I am in no way recommending this to you; but there is valid reasoning and method of protection that I will get into later.
There is always going to be new viruses (also known as virii). They will continue to spread and many will remain un-detected. How important is your data to you? Are you willing to count on some company that most likely is producing most of these virii just to keep themselves in business? What happens when they do not find a signature for a wide spreading virus in time to prevent it's distruction of your important files?
The entire point to my little rant, is anti-virus technology cannot be trusted, I have had several machines that were infected but Norton, Mcafee they fail to detect it.
There are many more reasons besides virii, that make us concerned with data retention and loss prevention: Recent troubles throughout the world, Earthquakes, Harsh winter storms, Midwest Flooding, Hurricane's Andrew, Jorge, and others that have stricken the US Coast, Other natural occurrences, worldwide that cause shutdowns because of data inaccessibility, Power outage in your area, Disk crash, Lost laptop.
The truth is, disaster or emergency can strike at anytime. It can take the form of natural occurrences, or in the form of theft, sabotage, hardware failure, or user error. Any of these occurrences of data loss can severely threaten a company's business process.
Industry analysts report that 50% of businesses that lose their data never open their doors again. Of those businesses that do stay open 90% end up failing completely within two years. It is easy to see how important it is for you to have the best business continuity plan available. Part of your plan should be reliable, simple, and scheduled back up of your data!
Now that we have covered the importance of data loss prevention; I want to get into what we can do to protect ourselves and the pros / cons of each method.
Earlier I had expressed that I personally do not use antivirus anymore but I am not recommending that method to you. What I do recommend is dropping the use of Norton, Mcafee and all the bloated expensive AV systems that only detect a small portion of what is actively infecting the internet attached world.
First line of defense:
Goto the microsoft website and download all the security patches.
With your computer disconnected from the internet install a 20 gig hard drive for your OS and applications and a secondary hard drive (size of your choosing) for all your files.
Install a fresh copy of windows ( keeping the system disconnected from the lan or internet)
Install all the windows updates
Install AVG Free - it is a free, light weight anti-virus utility that does not hinder your computers resources. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 (Some restrictions apply for commercial use)
Install all your applications.
On your secondary hard drive create a folder called "Documents and Settings"
Inside that folder create a folder with your login name for example a windows user name of "Jake" I would create a folder called Jake
then inside that folder create one called "Desktop" and example: "Jake's Documents"
inside the Jake's Documents folder you would now create the following folders:
"My Music" "My Pictures" "My Videos"
Now from the microsoft website download the power toy: TweakUI
After installing it run the application and expand the "My Computer" menu.
Select the "Special Folders" at this menu you want to go to each folder and map it to the ones you just created on the secondary hard drive.
There are many other folders you can map, but I only recommend the ones I have mentioned here: Desktop, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos
You need to repeat these steps for every user account.
Now reboot the system, verify that all the folders were mapped correctly.
Using a disk imaging program such as Norton Ghost. Create a snapshot of the 20Gig OS drive and save it to your secondary hard drive.
Now once a week or once a month you can restore the snapshot, and any malware, virii, spyware etc. will be instantly overwritten and you are no longer at the mercy of waiting for the anti-virus world to play catch-up.
Okay so now we have the system in a semi-protected setup what about all those files we just mapped to a secondary hard drive?
There are a number of things that can be done. First would be tape backups, which is most common. or even a Raid 1 mirror for that second hard drive in case of drive failure.
The bad thing about tapes especially from a small business prospective, is first the initial costs are pretty bad, then you have to have an employee who spends hours performing the backups which equals more expense.
You could always have another server inside the building that performs all the backups from these computers (Highly Recommended). But problems still ocur from this, user error, server failure, building fire, etc.
You could get a dedicated server in a secure datacenter somewhere, but then you would have to pay for the man hours required to manage the server and to do the rsync setup. (This is a very bad idea especially if you have important information like client records and other critical information)
There is a very cost effective solution, that allows you to flip through your files upto 30 days back in history, so even if you delete a file by accident or it becomes corrupt, you will be able to go back and recover it.
This solution is the best I have come across, and so I started offering it as a service to my clients.
It not only does the action of:
(You could always have another server inside the building that performs all the backups from these computers (Highly Recommended). But problems still ocur from this, user error, server failure, building fire, etc.)
as mentioned before but it also does a remote backup to a secure datacenter. But the difference between you having a dedicated and using this system is before it sends the data off to the datacenter it encrypts it with your 128bit ecryption key which is safely kept on your person and not stored on our servers. So only you are able to view your data.
This system also works for users with only a single computer that do not have the luxury of a local server designated for backups.
As the person responsible for the computer systems and network technical operations of your company, Business Continuity rests on your shoulders. Essentially you are responsible to make sure, that regardless of what happens, that your company or business continues to do business with little or no interruption.
For more information on the remote backup solutions we provide please visit us at: http://www.quantumns.com/?pg=backupfeatures
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