The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Recently we heard about the theft of computers from the Customs building at Mascot. The story varied from the theft of two "mainframes" down to two hard disks, depending on which news source you read. If you saw the TV news, we were shown some Compaq servers in racks. Of course, "nothing important" was on those machines, just as a laptop stolen from the Department of Transport contained "only" a PowerPoint presentation.
Securing Notebooks
As for the rest of us who do have valuable data in our computers, what do we do to protect it? For my notebook computer, I have a lightweight, Kensington steel cable that anchors it to some heavy object if I am working at an insecure location. A couple of others such as Targus and Noteworthy also make (or rebadge) this lockable cable for this purpose. Notebook theft is common in Silicon Valley, where strange faces in the office don't rate a second look. Many companies issue such cable locks to staff but I don't think that many are used.
At my last employer, we had glass walls and external walkways that could be accessed by anyone after hours. Every time someone accidentally left a notebook on their desk instead of taking it home, a concrete block would be lobbed through the plate glass and the notebook would be taken. They lost three of these as well as two data projectors.
Other options are to burn important data to a CD-R disk or copy to a network drive or even a USB Flash card for smaller files. Yes, easier said than done, but it's worth reminding ourselves. There is yet another device that is getting affordable by the day.
Iomega External Hard Drive
I had a short play with a portable storage device that has a matter-of-fact name
- Iomega External Hard Drive, which is available in two capacities: 80 GB or 120
GB. They sell for $629 and $799 respectively, so the larger drive is more
cost-effective. Portable drives are another option for moving data from office
to office or home. Backing up to such a drive often and to the network less
frequently helps to reduce network traffic.Now, this is not the same calibre of drive as the no-name portable hard disk cases that sell for $120 and you supply your own drive to fit inside. The cheapies tend to have just a USB interface (often version 1.1), whereas the Iomega device has optional FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces. This gives up to 48 MB/s data transfer rate, which is well suited to moving large video files.
Even the backup software has a simple name: Iomega Automatic Backup, which does its job exactly as the name says. Symantec Norton Ghost 2003 is also included, so that you can make an image of your PC or notebook and back it up for later replication.
Reprinted from the October 2003 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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