| Among her many responsibilities, the tasks of disk | | | | Another course of action a company should be |
| backup and deduplication fell to Karen, the | | | | advised to take to avoid data corruption is to |
| company's friendly data entry analyst. Karen was | | | | institute a policy forbidding the removal of |
| a capable young employee and had good | | | | company data from the office. This method of |
| intentions of fulfilling all her tasks to the best of | | | | checks and balances must be strictly enforced to |
| her ability. Leaving her briefcase full of files and | | | | be effective. Employees must not feel at liberty |
| archived tapes in her unlocked car was most | | | | to be careless with company property, be that |
| definitely unintentional, but a costly oversight, | | | | intellectual property or physical property. The |
| nonetheless. She had unwittingly compromised her | | | | employee who acts irresponsibly with files and |
| company's data structure and caused irreparable | | | | archived tapes , for whatever reason, is not an |
| damage to their reputation. This unpleasant | | | | employee who values his responsibilities. |
| situation could have been avoided altogether. The | | | | Employees with access to sensitive data materials |
| following are a couple quick and easy steps that | | | | should be those who have a proven track record |
| Karen's company could have taken to prevent | | | | of trustworthiness over the course of their |
| this from occurring. | | | | tenure with the company. Furthermore, |
| One of the first things a company can do to | | | | employees whose job descriptions require |
| avoid the theft of critical data is to initiate a data | | | | involvement with storable or archival data must |
| management contract with an outside firm. This | | | | take their duties very seriously. Employees who |
| firm would be responsible for data archival | | | | choose to ignore the enacted policy must know |
| measures. This firm's remote office location could | | | | ahead of time what the consequences of their |
| provide a safe facility for information to be | | | | actions will be. |
| stored. Instead of data storage being an item on | | | | Karen's company could have avoided a costly and |
| an employees to do list, this task becomes the | | | | embarrassing situation. Had the company taken |
| primary contract objective of the chosen firm. A | | | | the steps to make a contract with an outside |
| company's data's security would be a top priority. | | | | source, Karen would not have been carrying |
| The reason for this is, of course, because their | | | | sensitive material in her bag. Had a policy been |
| business model is specifically structured to provide | | | | enacted and enforced, Karen would have known |
| security and safety. The company who chooses | | | | expectations and consequences. But the blame |
| to store information at an outside source also | | | | should not fall squarely on the shoulders of this |
| provides additional protection for files, should a | | | | young analyst. By taking a little extra time to |
| company experience a breach of security or | | | | create a viable storage maintenance solution, |
| damage to their property. With a little investigation | | | | Karen's company could foster an environment of |
| and time, a company can equip themselves with | | | | safety and security. This lone measure would |
| the tools necessary to provide protection for all | | | | provide a safety net for stored data and offer an |
| their vital information. | | | | easy process for record retention. |