It’s not uncommon for a business in Ireland to use tape backups as a backup solution for their critical data. What is common though is the fear that some business owners have using a tape backup solution.
When I deal with a new customer I often ask them about their current backup solution, if they have one. From what I have seen the majority of them would be using tapes to backup their critical data. When it comes to asking them what issues they face when using tapes and why they are interested in using an online backup solution the answer is usually the same, it’s either because the backups need to be performed manually or for fear of losing the tapes when they are taken offsite.
Recently Zurich UK announced the loss of a data tape in South Africa, they stated:
The back-up tape was lost during a routine transfer within South Africa to a data storage centre in August 2008. The back-up tape also held details of customers and other parties in South Africa and Botswana. Zurich UK’s investigation into the loss of the back-up tape has revealed deficiencies in the management of data tape security procedures in South Africa.
Not only has it taken them over a year to discover the backup tape had been missing but they have also failed to mention if the tape was encrypted. Also, details of 641,000 customers had been contained on the tape, according to theregister.co.uk
This is the worst nightmare for every business owner that uses tape backups is losing the tapes after it gets shipped offsite. Worse yet, for a small business this type of data loss is enough to destroy them.
The lesson to be learned from Zurich UK is to ensure you have security procedures in place when sending your data offsite and review those procedures often.
I will also add if you are using tape backups never ever rely on a member of your staff to take those backups home (it does happen). This is not an offsite backup solution and it’s not fair on your employees or more importantly your customers.
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