Keeping Data Safe

Keeping Data Safe

1. The Importance of Security

   • Companies spend a lot of manpower and money on keeping their data, sofware, product designs and production secrets secure. If you look at the "Real Life Scenario" at the bottom of the THREATS TO DATA page you will see that even small companies must ensure that all their valuable products are protected. Larger organisations must also be careful. Imagine you have just invented a car engine that can travel for 500 miles on a thimble of water! You would want to keep those designs secret wouldn't you? If a competitor got hold of your plans, you wouldn't have an advantage and you would lose money.
   • Identity theft can also be a big problem. This can take many forms. Your bank account could be emptied or someone could claim a loan while pretending to be you. Click here to see some famous victims of identity theft. Companies are also legally obliged to protect your data and information about you. If they store information about you it must be secure and it must be registered with the Data Protection Registrar. If information about you is leaked or sold without your permission, you can sue that company.

2. How to Keep Data Secure

   • Physical Barriers
     • Turn off your computers. Lock your laptops to a secure object like a heavy desk. Put your servers and other important equipment in a locked and air-conditioned room. Make your offices secure with security passes for access to important areas of the building. Put systems in place like fire prevention or carbon dioxide fire extinguishers.
   • Password Protection
     • This seems obvious but you must use passwords - and make sure they are STRONG. My cat is called Monty. A weak password would be "Monty" because my colleagues know my cat's name. I was born in Rotherham so a strong password might be r0Th3Rh£m. Notice it has capital letters, numbers and is 9 characters long.
   • Access Levels
     • Users can be given certain access levels to different folders on a computer or server. Only let certain people see important files and folders.
   • Anti-virus Software
     • Software like SOFOS, Symmantec and AVG can protect your computer from viruses that could ruin your business. A famous virus that caused lots of problems around the world was the I LOVE YOU virus.
   • Firewall
     • This is a piece of software that monitors all data entering your network and blocks anything that it thinks is harmful.
   • Encryption
     • Encryption uses algorithms to encode data that you send across the internet in to a format that can only be read by someone who has the same key.
   • Back up and Recovery
     • School backs up all your work. Every night,it copies all your work on to external hard disks. These are held off-site so that if anything happens to school, once the hardware is replaced, your work can be copied back on to the server. Another scenario might be that some of your work goes missing on Thursday night. You notice this in your Friday lesson. You can go to the ICT office and ask them to restore your work from Thursday morning. ICT put the relevant external hard disk in to the server and copy the files back to your area.