Best Practices for Protecting Private Information on Back-up Tapes

Data protection is critical insurance against loss of data that could cripple a business. It is estimated that three out of five businesses that experience downtime of 48 hours or more will be out of business within 3 years. Creating a successful disaster recovery and data protection plan requires people, process and technology in the right recipe to be successful. It is not easy work, but it is essential work. Protecting private information is becoming increasingly important and is being mandated by state and federal legislation. Private information can be defined as non-public personal information such as name, address, credit card number, Social Security Number; and company-sensitive information including nonpublic financial data, customer lists, intellectual property and trade secrets. In recent months, the two worlds of privacy protection and disaster recovery via tape backup have intersected, providing key indicators that businesses need to redefine their approach to backup to address these new concerns. Enterprise Strategy Group summarizes this best in a recent research report. These regulations mean that data security decisions must be made in the context of corporate governance, not simply technology operations (ESG Research, The State of Backup Encryption, March 2005).

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