An important part of information security is making your data available, and keeping that data available. Loss of data can be a minor inconvenience, or it can kill your business. And it is not just businesses that need to worry about data loss.

Think of your personal data. All of those pictures on your camera, your phone, your laptop, or your computer. Or even the non-electronic data like printed pictures, slides, important papers, journals — the list is almost endless. Protecting that data from different kinds of loss is important to a business, and to individuals.

And there are lots of ways to back up that data, no matter what it is. On a personal level, you can copy files to CD/DVDs, or to an external hard drive (USB thumb drive, external hard disk). Those are valid solutions. But only if you remember to do them. And then there is the storage issue. Where do you keep these backup copies? Keeping them in the same physical location protects the data — until there is a flood, or a fire, or tornado, or a theft, or … well, the possibilities for data loss have not been fully mitigated.

One of the solutions I have used for a couple of years is an on-line backup service. The service I use is from Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), and costs $59/year for unlimited, automatic on-line backup. Tree important words in that statement. Unlimited backup takes care of all of my files at the same basic cost. Automatic means that I don’t have to worry about doing it. And the third important part is “on-line” — the data is stored off-site in ‘the cloud’.

With Carbonite, everything is automatic. I install the software on one computer at home (they have a multiple-computer plan also). I designate the folders to back up. The Carbonite software automatically copies my files to their servers, over my Interwebs connection, and does it with a minimal impact on my other on-line activities. If I make a change to a file, that changed file is added to the backup list.

And it is all done automatically. It meets the requirements for keeping my backups current; the files are available if I need them; and I don’t have to remember to do anything.

But what about the multiple computers around your house? You may have a couple of laptops or  desktops at your house. How do you keep all of your computers backed up?

With Carbonite,  you have to pay for one yearly subscription ($59) for every computer you back up. If you have multiple computers at home, that can start getting expensive. A bit of adjustment on your end will fix that.

In my case, the desktop computer downstairs is Carbonited. That computer, plus our two laptops, are all networked together. So a process of copying data from laptops to desktop gets our laptop files as part of the Carbonite backup. That’s done with the free Microsoft SyncToy, which syncs the files from laptop to desktop.  It’s pretty fast (much faster than a straight copy command), since it only works on files that have changed.

So my important personal data is backed up with Carbonite. There are other services that perform similar functions; some have better pricing for multiple computers. But my data is safe from a local (home) disaster, and it is mostly hands-free.

Reports in a couple places about some really sneaky attacks if you do on-line banking. The attacks will steal your credit card info (with your help), make unauthorized charges, then remove those charges from your on-line statements. Pretty clever, actually.

Here’s a couple of links about this: http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/9986119-new-virus-raids-your-bank-account-but-you-wont-notice and http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/05/spyeye-bank-trojan-hides-its-fraud-footprint/ .

Your defense? Those four things we mentioned here http://cellarweb.com/securitydawg/?p=56 : Windows updates, application updates, anti-virus updates, not browsing as an administrator. Those would be a great start.

Spent some time doing WordPress updates on a pile of WordPress sites I manage. There is a 3.3.1 update that fixes a couple of security holes in version 3.3.0. Some theme updates are also required, which I will get to later.

But the important point here is that if you manage or own a web site, you got to make sure that you keep the site current with the latest updates.

I forgot to take a full nap yesterday, so only stayed up last night until midnight EST …. I am in MST. Decided that the loss of sleep was the thing to do. And it wasn’t too noisy around my neighborhood. A few fireworks (they are legal in Utah on New Year’s Eve), but  at 24F it was too cold to go outside to try to find some to look at.

A bright Sunday morning today: not as cold as the prior weeks; we might get up to 40F today. No snow in the forecast; all I can see is brown lawns and weeds. Today’s sky is a bright blue.

As usual, working on a web site or two while watching football. This new one is supposed to be ready by Feb 1st, so need to get it working. Some code recycling is in order to make the pages work right.

Changed over to 9am church meetings. So home by noon, a turkey/cranberry sandwich with some chips for lunch. Pork chops or grilled steaks for dinner. Just the two of us today, so a quiet afternoon and evening is in store.