How to Protect Your Laptop Data

How to Protect Your Laptop Data
Laptop computers are becoming more and more widely used then before. They are rapidly replacing desktop computers becoming many companies primary office tool. As survey data from 200 IT managers and stuffs of companies shows that 40 percent of them use notebook for working or building their network relationship. However, half of the companies indicated that they did not take some action to protect the commonly used documents or backup the important data for the later data recovery.

The survey, sponsored by Imation Corp, a worldwide leader in removable data storage media, also discovered that less than one-third (29 percent) of these companies use software to back up changed files to a corporate network. Additionally, 57 percent of companies hold the individual employee responsible for backing up data onto the company server.

With such a large number of small and mid-sized companies placing the responsibility for backing up laptops in the hands of their employees, Imation recommends the following tips to help end-users avoid potential data loss on their laptops:

1. Implement a software program that automatically backs up laptop data on a regular basis. Most programs work by having the software monitor the laptop hard drive for any changes to data files or directories. Changes are then backed up locally on the laptop’s hard drive. The next time the user connects to the company’s network, the backup software automatically sends the changes to a server for further backup to tape.

2. Copying laptop files to a network drive for further backup to removable tape media is also a common strategy for companies not employing special software. In this case, the user should review their company’s network backup processes to understand how often backups are performed. Here are a few questions users can review with their IT department:

- During regularly scheduled backups, what files, programs or folders get backed up?
- What time of day are backups performed?
- Where is the data stored and for how long?
- Once stored, how can the data be accessed?
Data protection means making sure that private data belonging to a person or organization is kept hidden from those who are not authorized to use it.
Many organization collect data of their customers. Some of this data is needed for efficient processing the business transactions but much of this data is personal information of the customer. For example, a hospital collects data about the disease history of patients. All the personal data kept by different organizations may be disclosed for some legal purpose. The data protection rules do not allow anyone to disclose personal data of any person. It means that any personal data kept by some organization should never be disclosed to unauthorized persons or organizations under any circumstances.