Backup Anytime

Stand up laptop thief.

Laptop theft is a serious problem. The guy in this video may come across as being over the top, sanctimonious, threatening, obsessive and well just plain scary. If every laptop theft victim had his attitude it is likely that the incidence of stolen laptops would drop quite significantly. I wouldn’t like to be the target in the class.

The speakers failures however would appear to be in the areas of encryption and data backup. If these two issues were addressed correctly his data would not get in the wrong hands and would be available to him.

Conclusion?

Having the attitude, diction and power of a lecturer and having your target trapped in the room just doesn’t compare in effectiveness with having your data encrypted and backed up.

If he had an account with Backupanytime, not alone would he have his data, we could assist in retrieving his laptop. How can an online backup service provide a stolen laptop retrieval service? See here, http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/10/21/backupanytime-stolen-laptop-retrieval-service/

Data loss is only one component of data breach.

In years gone by, the main (even sole) concern which business had regarding data was the direct consequences to themselves of losing data. The questions they asked themselves centred around an inward looking theme.

What data do we need to retain to ensure survival?
How will data loss affect us?
How long will it take us to get backup and running should we lose data which is backed up?
Will we be able to get back up and running if we lose data which is not backed up?

These are all valid questions but every one of them miss the main concern which has always existed but has come to the fore in the past few years.

How will if affect other people and organisations?

Just to bring some clarity to inward looking people, the above question also equates to the following.

Will we be sued, prosecuted or shown in the media to have compromised client data?

This changes the perspective and adds a whole new required functionality to the issue. We are now moving up from basic backup to actual data protection.

So, a manual drag and drop of files to an external pen drive or hard drive which is bandied about in a directors car at night may to a small degree offer an element of simple backup. It does on the other hand however very likely significantly increase the risk of data loss. This is not recognised by companies and individuals who are only interested in retaining a copy of data for themselves. If they look beyond this blinkeed and recklessly narrow focus they will see that the net effect is to place copies of client data in dangerous situations.

Ask yourself this.
Would I be satisfied if every company I have ever dealt with had personal and identifiable information pertaining to me being driven about in staff cars overnight?

Absolutely not. All this does is increase the number of potentially available copies of this information for the companies involved and also increase the risk of breach to those about whom the data relates.

So, simple backup is too narrow a focus. Offsite only helps if it does not as a consequence of being offsite increase data protection risk factors.

The next time you consider the importance of a file, don’t just consider how much you need that file. Also consider how much others need that file (and any other versions of it applicable to you) protected from public release.

Backupanytime content being stolen.

I have “Backupanytime” set up as a Google alert term so I receive notifications about mention of Backupanytime on the web. Being a small business, many of these relate to content on our own site and I am familiar with them before Google alerts me. Some of them relate to our blog being added to someones blogroll (and this is appreciated) while others are as a consequence of a blog post somewhere by us or about us.

I received one today of a totally different type. I recognised the content. Indeed I wrote it. The location was not known to me. The location was http://onlinebackupsolutions.blogspot.com
I had a look at it. Realising that there were other incidents of our content on the site and that they in the main linked back to a competing online backup company I had a very close look indeed.
Here are some examples of what I found.
http://onlinebackupsolutions.blogspot.com/2008/12/features-and-limitations-of-backup.html
Supposedly Posted by Rachel Joseph at 3:24 PM

The above is not just like original content from our site but even has “Backupanytime” in the content! It comes from http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/07/16/50-things-you-should-know-about-online-backup/

Here is another example.

http://onlinebackupsolutions.blogspot.com/2008/11/compression.html
Posted by Rachel Joseph on 21 November
This originally comes from http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/07/16/50-things-you-should-know-about-online-backup/
They must like that post.
And here is another one
http://onlinebackupsolutions.blogspot.com/2008/11/encryption-and-its-importance_17.html
is also taken from our original content on
http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/07/16/50-things-you-should-know-about-online-backup/
and again Posted by Rachel Joseph, this time November 17th.  She must know this original Backupanytime blog post off by heart. It is indeed a long but apt and interesting post which took considerable time to complete. Rachel has a much more efficient approach. She just steals my content and splits it up to make multiple posts. Content theft is despicable. It is so mean.
They all in the main lead back to http://sosonlinebackup.com/

I called that company and got an answering machine. I left a detailed message.
I will follow this up no matter what it takes.

I am also reporting this to blogger and I am reporting the adsense account. These reports involve snail mail. I assume this is to avoid misreporting. I expect therefore that these reports (especially since mine is detailed and undeniable) will be taken very seriously. Data protection is difficult to apply to data you want to make public througha website but which you want to be attributable to the correct  source. They are real costs in producing content. Why should someone else have reduced I.T. costs through plagiarism? There are no acceptable circumstances I am aware of. If someone wants to enlighten me, feel free.

I would appreciate any assistance on this.

In addition I want to track Rachel Joseph. Firstly to see if she actually exists and secondly to see if she has posted our content anywhere else.

Any comments, advice or opinions welcome.

John

All visitors are welcome to participate in this poll. Please be aware that any results only relate to those who participate and are not meant to be representative of any macro usage or opinion. Data may be reviewed by all users.

The above poll uses the following variables:

Security, Confidentiality, Data retention period, Price, Support, Interface and usability, Open file management, SQL and Exchange compatability, Frequent (free) software updates & Same region data store.

Findings may be published for this and other Backupanytime polls as Backupanytime review the results.

Constructive comments generally and comments regarding any recommended features for future polls are welcome.

Keep passwords safe wcith password safe.

From an end user viewpoint, the key to any secure system is indeed managing the key. As an online backup provider, a major concern for us is that clients retain their encryption details and do so in a safe manner and on a different system (and also in paper format) to the online backup source computer.

These same clients will have numerous other non online backup passwords and authentication details which they will also need to retain. Singular password usage for multiple applications is not good practice and therefore even occasional computer users will likely have a considerable number of passwords to retain. These will range from critical passwords to the seemingly mundane. If a password is required the associated application is likely to be confidential in nature.  This can be online banking, system logon, email, forum membership, host management and a wide variety of other applications.

if you need guidance on choosing passwords you should read the Bruce Schneier penned guide in the Guardian.

The crux of this post however is keeping passwords safe after you have chosen them.
An excellent application to assist with this is Password Safe. (supervision by Bruce Schneier) Bruce is a world renowned expert in data security. Password Safe is actually a free application. PasswordSafe uses TwoFish (block cipher by Counterpane Labs) technology.

You can download Password safe from Sourceforge. The very short faq list for this app is testament to the simplicity which has been successfully applied to the user experience inherent with this far from simple technology.

Great app. No strings. No cost. No adds. No compromise.