Kiss Your Data Goodbye!

Still not backing up your data on a regular basis? Kiss your data goodbye!

Not having a back up can change or worse ruin your business. The odds and chance of you loosing everything is high because problems like computer failure, destruction or loss by viruses, fire, or theft occur when you least expect it.

To prevent an unintentionally loss of information on your computer you need routine backups. Each day without a backup you risk ALL your valuable information. There are many storage options to explore when considering where to put your backup. The one place you don't want to keep it is on the very computer you are backing up.

No CDs.

No DVDs.

No external hard drive.

No time.

No problem, online backups to the rescue!

Online backups allow you to encrypt (scramble) and store files in a secure, remote location that's only accessible to you -- from anywhere. In most cases, you download and install a small software application on your computer that works quietly in the background looking for new and changed files that need to be backed up.

With online backups you don't have to think about it. The backup can be set up once, then work automatically. The backup application is smart enough to only back up data that's not already been backed up, only back up parts of a file that have changed, and is able to back up open and locked files.

With online backups restoring your data is easy. Restore any file or folder from your backup with just a few clicks as often as you want or need. You can recover lost files to a new computer by visiting a website. You can choose to retrieve your restore via download or, have it burned on DVD then shipped to you.

Do you have too many client files clogging up your hard drive? When deciding what to back up, consider all highly critical information to your business. Anything you cannot replace easily like emails, contacts, calendar entries, documents, spreadsheets, pictures, audio files, bookmarks, all customer data and your databases.

Enjoy peace of mind in knowing that your data is encrypted, stored in a safe and at remote location.

The free versions are a great way to begin, if you outgrow it, you can migrate to the for-pay plans easily. No more excuses these services have no risks because they are totally free.

A Guide to Implementing Backup HIPAA Data Offsite Guidelines

With new regulations in play more and more companies are considering backup HIPAA data offsite solutions. In some cases it's the law and in other's our health records are one thing most of us want to keep private. The reason for this consideration involves the HIPAA legislation, its effects on the health care industry, what those effects mean for data storage, and what medical offices need to consider. By reviewing this information on backup HIPAA data offsite storage, you may be better prepared to make choices about your storage solutions.

To understand the issue, you may need background on the HIPAA legislation. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, became law in 1996. The purpose of the law was to ensure people would maintain health care coverage if they changed jobs. However, Title II of the law dealt with Administrative Simplification, specifically how to deal with electronic data about health care. Obviously, the passage of the law had a drastic effect on the health care industry. And probably more importantly paved the way for an increase in backup HIPAA data offsite providers.

Because of the Administrative Simplification portion of the law, medical facilities today must take great care when dealing with a patient's electronic files. For example, HIPAA required a hierarchical approach to data access. Physicians might be able to access patient information that would not be available to the nurse. Protecting the data from unauthorized access became crucial. As a result, the law has affected the way data storage backups are handled in the medical field. As a consequence backup HIPAA data offsite services have had to adjust there service offerings.

Today, data storage for these facilities must be carefully controlled. HIPAA requires that all of the data be backed up and that data must be secured with 100% reliability. The government wants to make sure no one gets into your personal medical records. That means, however, that backup HIPAA data offsite storage facilities must take special precautions to ensure the service they provide meets these requirements.

If you're looking for offsite-backup for HIPAA data storage, you should look for a few factors. Make sure to find out if the storage service specializes in this type of data storage. There are many that do. You should also ask about the back up process, security, and storage to make sure you are comfortable with how the data will be handled.

Conclusion
Overall, the HIPAA law has changed the way medical facilities deal with patients' electronic medical information. Remember to do careful research on any storage service before trusting them with your data, especially when you're dealing with this sensitive data. Armed with this knowledge, hopefully, you'll feel confident to make a wise storage decision.

Effectively Using Offsite Data Backup Services For Your Business

The increased awareness around data backups is one reason why offsite data backup services have become such a popular option. Storing and protecting your business's data can be critical. Before committing to one of these services it is important to understand the service, the common features, and their pros and cons. By reviewing this information you'll be able to decide whether or not offsite data backup services are the right solution for your data storage needs.

First, you should understand what offsite data backup services are designed to do and how they work. Basically, the data that is housed on your computer, server, or network drive is retrieved and encrypted on a set schedule through software provided by the service. After the data has been encrypted, it is delivered electronically to off site secure storage. Before choosing a type of offsite storage, it's also important to look at the features each service offers.

Most of the storage services available today offer similar features. For one, you can expect the transferred data to be compressed so it will use up less bandwidth as it travels to the remote destination. Some services allow you to choose continuous backup so you never have to worry about losing any saved data. Other services will give you online access to your stored data. With all of these features, there are some clear advantages to using these types of solutions.

There are a few main advantages to this type of service. For example, you do not have to manually backup your data which means you won't have to worry about forgetting. Having a remote storage site is good because if something happens at the original data's location you could end up losing both the original and stored otherwise. Plus, the security used is usually very high. However, there are some disadvantages.

Using these services comes with some drawbacks. For example, if you have low bandwidth it may take awhile for the data to be restored to your computer. Also, if the backup service goes under your data could end up elsewhere. You may also be worried about losing the encrypted password because it is your only key to your stored data.

Overall, there are many valuable features and good reasons to consider these offsite data backup services. Before deciding, you may want to look at price and security issues in more detail. However, this should give you a starting point for that further investigation into effectively and efficiently using offsite data backup services.

Data Recovery - How to Recover Inaccessible Data

Data recovery refers to the recovery of inaccessible or contaminated data from media that has been damaged in some way. Through the advancement of technology, these days computers are exposed to quite a few dangers and loss of data is common. Therefore, data recovery is being increasingly used.

Most of us have had moments when we have lost some important data due to media damage. There are many reasons why this can happen and some of the most common ways are as follows; dropping it, virus, vibration damage, accidental reformatting of partitions, liquid damage, hard disk component failure, corrupted data, inaccessible drives, and partitions.

With that being said here are several somewhat easy and simple methods to execute windows data recovery. If you want to recover lost data, turn off the computer and then download some computer recovery software on another PC that has Windows XP or Windows 2000 installed on it and take out the hard drive from the computer you were working. You will need a special adapter or cable if you need to connect a hard drive from a laptop computer to your desktop computer. You will need to run the windows data recovery program on the second computer.

If you are using only one computer, shut it down immediately. You can still take out the hard drive of the computer using the previous information. Next you will need to install a new hard drive, reinstall your operating system and use the recovery software that you have on it. In case the drive is damaged it can make recovery process nearly unachievable. Then use the recovery software that you have to retrieve the lost data to your new hard drive. Make sure that the windows check disk utility program does not try to repair the drive when it boots up. Make certain that you have recovered all of the lost data and be sure that your file is protected.

How to Recover Data From Mobile Phones

Professionals increasingly carry data on their cell phones, including email messages, documents, videos and instant messages. Also now the financial transactions can be carried out via the mobile phone, this means that an individual can easily transfer the money from one account to another; pay the bills and much more. This information can belong to different levels of priority; i.e. from personal & confidential information to some very secret information about company deals, etc. This increases the risk of hackers who want to get at that data without your permission, to attack your mobile phone.

To extract data from a mobile phone was not an easy thing to do few years ago. However, with the advancement in the forensic science, many tools exist which help in extracting all the information from your mobile phone. Of course, there are some challenges that are faced during this process. The biggest one is that there are hundreds of models of cell phones, with manufacturers adding dozens of new ones each year. And all those models employ a wide array of BIOS versions, operating systems and software. The other nut to crack is portability.

Mobile forensic experts should always stress on the following as the main sources of evidence:

1. The subscriber,
2. The mobile station, and
3. The network

Some of the other sources for collecting evidence could be:

- Look for the SIM card which provides details regarding the name of network provider and a unique ID number printed on the surface.

- SIM contains a processor and non-volatile memory. So using a standard smart card reader and SIM access software like AgapeMobiTool, one can easily extract all the information from the mobile phone.

- Gather the contacts that are stored in the SIM. Also look out for the SMS sent and received, to get any clue.

- Check the Settings (language, date/time, tone/volume etc), stored audio recordings, images/multimedia files, executable programs (e.g. J2ME), stored calendar events, GPRS, WAP and Internet settings.

- Look out for the calls received and dialed. Even if someone deletes the entries, it can be found out as that memory location is filled with void. So issues related to evidence tampering can also be tracked.

Following these steps can help in recovering the data from mobile phones and hand held devices and can help in investigation.