Data Loss And Disasters

Digital information can be instantly sent over wiresand optical disks out of shape. Additional damage is
over long distances to any place in the world. It isdone when the fire trucks arrive and pump water
easy to modify digital data, delete it, change it andand foam into the building, submerging everything.
make as many copies of it as one wants. AllFloods
information technology devices have fast processorsFloods are getting increasingly common in the world
that process data at an astonishing speed thatbecause of global warming and melting of glaciers and
results in tasks getting executed faster and morepolar ice caps. Any river lying close to your office
efficiently.may overflow its banks without warning in an
Any company in its routine work generates a lot ofunexpected rainfall or cloud burst. Computers and
digital data. This has to be stored safely and securelystorage devices that get submerged in water suffer
on a storage device so that it can be accessedserious damage and become inoperable.
anytime in the future for further processing orLightning Strike
transferring to other machines. The data storageLightning is accompanied by thunder clouds during
products industry is quite advanced and offers astorms and cyclones. It contains an electric charge
range of devices to suit every need and budget.that is millions of volts strong. If it strikes your office
Popular storage media available in the market includebuilding, it sears through electric and telephone cabling
non-removable devices such as hard drives, USBand fries all electronic circuits inside computers and
drives, floppy disks, optical disks, portable hard driveshard disks. It can also make flash memory cards
and tape drives. Their capacities range from 1.4 MBuseless by destroying their data that is manipulated
for a floppy disk to a whopping 500 GB and evenby an electric charge.
more for a hard disk.Terrorist Attack
Digital data has many benefits, but suffers from oneTerrorist attacks account for large-scale destruction
very serious drawback which almost negates all itsof property and human lives each year. Usually, such
advantages. It is volatile and unstable because it isa strike involves a massive bomb blast that collapses
represented as electric charge or a pattern ofthe building or hurls everything around with a great
magnetic particles. For a variety of reasons, it canimpact. If your office is located in a busy commercial
disappear instantly anytime, leaving the users indistrict, terrorist attack can be a possibility.
serious trouble.Backing up Data
Data loss is a very serious affair that is responsibleMost companies realise the importance of data and
for many companies closing down every year astake a regular backup on devices such as portable
they cannot cope with its after-effects. Digital datahard disks and tape drives (usually the latter). This is
can be lost due to a variety of factors that may hitvery effective in cases of hardware or software
the storage devices. Mainly these are of two types -errors that crop up in individual computers.
hardware errors and software errors. Most of theHowever, data loss by a disaster is a totally different
data lost due to these can be recovered by theball game. Keeping backup on individual devices is of
users themselves using DIY data recovery softwareno use when a disaster strikes because the backup
or handing over the damaged devices to professionaland computers are usually stored inside the same
recovery companies.building. Both are totally destroyed if a fire or flood
But the worst-case data-loss scenario for answeeps through the structure.
organisation is when the office building is hit by aThe only way to guard against data loss due to
disaster. These disasters can be natural such asnatural or man-made disasters is using remote or
accidental fire, floods, storms, cyclones and lightningonline backup. Many service providers today offer
strike or man-made such as arson, sabotage andthis technology. In this, the backup is taken
terrorist activity.automatically from the client's computer by a
Firesoftware and the entire data is quietly transferred to
A fire is the most unfortunate thing that can happenthe service provider's servers that exist far away.
to an office building. It destroys everything such asWhen a disaster strikes, the client can buy new
paper files and documents as well as informationcomputers, download data from the remote server
technology devices. A fire is capable of intense heatthrough a password and be back in business in a
that roasts computers and bends or melts hard disksmatter of hours.