Threats to Data

Threats to Data

1. All computer systems are vulnerable to damage. Threats can include natural disasters like floods or earthquakes. They can include malicious attacks like theft, and have you ever wondered how companies recovered after the terrible attacks on 9/11? There are other threats like your place of work burning down, receiving a virus via email and simply spilling a drink on to your laptop, computer or external hard disk. All these threats could damage your work and in some cases have ruined businesses, causing people to lose their livelihood.

2. Opportunist Threat

   • People find a computer unattended. It has been left logged on. It is easy to use the computer to access sensitive personal and company information. Someone could easily log into your email or Amazon account and do damage. They could also, potentially steal your customer database.

3. Computer Viruses

   • These small programs can be received via email or on a memory stick. They can "self replicate" which means they can make copies of themselves and cause networks to fail. One of the most famous viruses was the I LOVE YOU virus.

4. Other Malware

   • Malware can be Internet worms, trojan horses, and spyware. They often run without you even knowing.

5. Phishing

   • Phishing comes via email and often pretend to be from a bank. They might tell you that you need to verify your security information via a website. When you go to the website, it looks like a proper bank website. You enter your bank details and hey-presto, the criminals have enough information to get to your money.

6. Accidental Damage

   • Accidental damage is just that - accidental. If you drop a laptop, the screen might crack but even worse, the hard disk may become damaged which means you can't get to your data. You might spill a drink on your computer which damages it beyond repair. Again you will lose your data and it is the data that is important to you. There are companies that specialise in data recovery (at a price) and they might be able to recover data from your hard disk. However, there are no guarantees. The very best thing you can do to protect your data is to back up your work regularly.

7. DISASTER RECOVERY

   • Companies spend huge amounts of man power and money to keep their hardware, software, data and information safe, but have you ever wondered why? Ask yourself this question: which is the most important to a company - its hardware or its data? The answer is, its data. Hardware can be replaced. Some companies have disaster recovery plans in place for their hardware. They pay a disaster recovery company to house a network that is the same or similar to the one that they use on a day to day basis. If their offices get flooded or there is a fire, the company contacts the disaster recovery company and says it needs to use their facilities. However, the hardware is the easy bit. All the hardware in the classroom you use at school might have a value of £10,000. This can easily be replaced by an insurance claim.

8. REAL LIFE SCENARIO

   • Mal and Geoff Broadbent ran a small company that made school management software. The grand total of the hardware they used was £5,000. They had a laptop each, a printer and a server. They regularly backed up the computer programs they were writing in case there was a fire or flood in their offices. Their software was very successful and their small company was bought by a larger company for several millions of pounds. The larger company weren't bothered about the hardware, that was only worth £5,000. They wanted to buy THE SOFTWARE and DATA. This was worth millions. If Mal and Geoff hadn't protected their software and data properly, they would not now be millionaires. See the KEEPING DATA SAFE page for information on how to avoid losing your valuable software and data.