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Helpful Prevention Tips

Data loss prevention is the best data recovery strategy. Policies and practices that lessen the chance of total data failure are a critical element of IT risk management.

Everyday preventive steps that sites can take to protect themselves from business data loss are:

Regularly Back Up Systems
From the individual PC to a corporate server or mainframe, critical data should be backed up often and regularly to separately stored media in environmentally controlled areas. Procedures for backup should be well-documented and current, to reduce the chance of employee error. From a disaster recovery perspective, current backups should be stored offsite, in safe and secure locations.

Practice Restoring from a Backup Before it is Needed
Real-life disaster recovery stories are full of examples of backups that did not work when they needed to. Staff should be trained and regularly tested in their abilities to backup and restore data. If it is not possible to exercise the disaster recovery plan in its entirety on an annual basis, an alternate strategy is the quarterly testing of mission-critical areas of the disaster recovery plan.

Never Upgrade any System without a Verified Backup
Systems should be completely backed up and restored before they are upgraded, because many data recovery cases involve upgrades that go wrong. Have a firm understanding of the system setup before attempting to install new software.

Document all Systems
List all of your applications, and develop a checklist to ensure that you are regularly backing up data from all of them. Original hardware and software copies and documentation should be organized for ease of retrieval. Also develop, maintain and train staff on system policies and procedures for the backup and protection of data and computer equipment.

Practice Preventive Physical Maintenance
Computer equipment should be maintained at all times under favorable environmental conditions. Optimally, this includes the use of environmental monitoring equipment that can alert staff any time a key environmental, such as temperature or humidity, fluctuates. Equipment should be placed on monthly maintenance schedules, to ensure that dust and particulates are kept clear of systems, and that system components are operating properly. Electrical power should be tightly regularly and augmented with the help of UPS's, conditioned power lines, and power surge protectors. If a disk scan indicates a bad sector, do not work around it. Replace the drive. Equipment maintenance and replacement and moves should be performed by highly trained professionals, and software recovery utilities should never be used to repair data when hardware is failing.

Maintain Systems for Optimal Daily Performance
A preventive system of everyday maintenance can help ensure that systems keep operating on an optimal level, with reduced risk of data loss. Hard drives can regularly be defragmented, and file systems can be routinely checked. Any software or data files that are no longer being used should be removed from their systems. Anti-virus and firewall software should be installed and kept up to date on both the desktop and the enterprise levels of the company, and all incoming disks and email should be checked for viruses and cleared before they are installed in company systems.

Pay Attention to Alarms
Many hard drives and storage management software programs provide "self-diagnostic" utilities to warn of impending or actual failures. The devices will continue to operate, since most manufacturers now build in sufficient redundancy to allow devices to keep functioning so they can be replaced before they totally fail. Do not ignore the failure warnings, and move forward aggressively with component replacement-because these devices will fail, and when they do, the failure will be total.

Closely Monitor Security
The data centers and facilities that computer resources are housed in should be well-protected from theft or vandalism with industrial-strength locks, keypads, and other physical access methods. Firewalls, proxy servers, VPNs and other "virtual" security strategies should be enacted to protect software and data from Internet hackers or disgruntled employees.

Prepare for Physical Disasters
Develop a disaster recovery plan, and schedule periodic tests of the plan to ensure that what's on paper really works. As part of this plan, you might want to contract with a backup "hotsite" data center to ensure business continuation in the event of an emergency.

Here are some additional data protection tips:

• Have a "fire drill." Back up data and test restore capabilities on a regularly basis.
• Keep your computer in a dry, controlled environment;
• Only entrust your data to someone who has the training to properly maintain and repair it;
• Use diagnostic/repair utilities with caution;
• Update anti-virus software frequently (minimally, monthly). Check all incoming diskettes from users, commercial vendors, and others, for viruses;
• Immediately turn off a computer if it starts making an unusual noise, like grinding or scraping.

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