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When you feel sick you see a doctor, when you see bugs running through your home you call the exterminator, and your computer is no exception. Within the past month or so there have been many new and very dangerous viruses. “Dangerous” you might think to be too strong of a word, but I assure you that it is appropriate. For most home users the data stored on their system is not to important, but for small and large businesses it could be a matter of staying in business.
So a virus like “Chernobyl—which formats the drive” would be detrimental to any business. For this there are ways to protect you and your business, first of which would be obtaining some form of Anti-virus software. There are many available, so make sure you purchase the one best suited for your business. Once the Anti-virus software is in place make sure to update it periodically to check any new viruses. Most of the best anti-virus software will have this ability built in and access by either modem direct-dial or internet. Of course these programs are not fool proof. Most virus creators are out to find ways around them, to them it is just a game. So what else can you do? Simple, setup a backup program in your business. If anything goes wrong you would have a backup of the data lost, so you would lose some time but not your company. There are two types of backup, there is System backup and Data backup. System backup is when you make a copy of everything that is on the hard drive. Data backup is when you copy specific files because they are constantly being updated. System backups should be done once everything is loaded on a system, or make a new copy when new software is added. Data backups should be done daily Monday—Friday. The one thing you want to make sure is that you keep the system backup separated from the data backup. You don’t what to lose your system backup. The best way to do this is to keep them in separate tape storage containers and to clearly mark them. Another way to help prevent data loss is to have UPS’s on your servers and data servers. The term UPS mean Uninterruptible Power Supply. These can be fairly expensive but a life saver as well. They give you addition time to save your data and shut down the system properly in the case of a black out, plus most of them have built-in surge suppression to help prevent an electrical spike ruining your system. Sure I will admit black outs don’t happen very often, but are you willing to risk it happening while working on something for the Number 1 customer. These are just a few items that businesses should be aware of. If you don’t have these items implemented in your business and would like to know more about them or how to implement them, we offer the services to help you in these situations. We will work with you to determine the best needs for your business. Just remember “Data is a terrible thing to waste or more importantly lose.”
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By: Ron Carter, Network Consultant
"Its like throwing money down the drain."