Cloud Cuckoo Land?

Posted by Mark on Nov 18, 2008

So, the people who brought us Vista have “unveiled” Azure so that now our data and applications can live somewhere else, in this place named “The Cloud”.

Rather than seeing this as a retrograde step, a reverse back to the time-sharing mainframes of the 1970’s and 1980’s, where access to a computer was often via renting a portion of someone else’s, this does seem to be a possible answer to the problems of data storage, application management, and data access, and one that takes away much of the headache of managing ones own infrastructure for the purpose.

But, who guards the guards?
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Throw the tapes away - disk backup is here

Posted by Mark on Oct 29, 2008

Data backup can be a nightmare, balancing the demands for instant access against the equally important need for security and reliance. Essentially there are Business Continuity demands that are competing with the requirement to be able to perform a Disaster Recovery.

The same people that patted you on the back because they could get their files back quickly from an online storage system might be the first in the queue to stick a metaphorical knife between your shoulder blades when the disk based backup system is off with the data recovery company, and you don’t have a good old fashioned solid and reliable tape backup.

So are tape backup systems better than disk based virtualized backup systems, do on-line backup systems trump all others? What is best?
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More data lost

Posted by Mark on Oct 10, 2008

This time we hear that a contractor has lost a portable hard drive containing 1.5 million records of military personnel, and that it was not encrypted.

Presumably, with the economic crisis being a “good time to bury bad news”, not a lot will happen. Will we ever get the answer to the one rather simple question about what happened?

What on earth was anyone doing copying 1.5 million service records on to a portable hard disk?
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“Greater love hath no man…”

Posted by Mark on Oct 10, 2008

We hear that the cabinet official who left top-secret documents lying on a train is to be charged under the Official Secrets act.

Does this mean that data security is now being taken seriously?
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The Tale of the Tape

Posted by Mark on Sep 24, 2008

Well really the title should read, “The tale’s on the tape”

Computer forensic investigation stories tend to focus upon what has been found on so-and-so’s hard disk drive how, despite attempts to eradicate the incriminating data, the dastardly plot was foiled and we can all get back to the Malt bar and eat Scooby Snacks.  But where else, other than the local hard drive, can the information you’re looking for be found.
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Does Hard Disk erasure work?

Posted by Mark on Sep 23, 2008

Data being lost stories crop up with too great a frequency, and with them a renewed debate about data security, data erasure and whether data can ever be completely eradicated from a hard drive.

Whatever the data you do not want it falling into the wrong hands, and just keeping it away HM Revenue and Customs or the MOD is no guarantee of its safety.
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Why, oh why, oh why, oh why …

Posted by Mark on Sep 23, 2008

Another day another data has been lost on a USB stick/laptop/CD *(delete as applicable) story. What is going on? Is this an inevitable result of technology moving forwards?

I think not, rather it is a sign of systems that are out of control with no responsibility being taken for the consequences of incompetence.
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