Protection makes data a sure thing
COMPUTER users eager to use the latest company technology tend to overlook data security when they spend millions of dollars on hardware.
About 80 per cent of EDP managers are unaware of how vulnerable their magnetic data is, surveys have shown.
Experts have emphasised the importance of installing protection: the price is small compared to the cost of losing the data.
Heavy-duty data security items are on show at SEARCC '93.
It is necessary to protect magnetic data against many different things.
If the temperature rises above 55 degrees C and the relative humidity hits 85 per cent, diskettes, streamer tapes and optical disks and other magnetic media will be destroyed.
Fire, water, acrid gases, abuse, theft and manipulation are also risks.
Many companies are risking bankruptcy because they do not have the proper facilities to store their media.
Research has shown magnetic media is stored mainly in ordinary cabinets or pedestal cabinets under tables.
Magnetic tapes in EDP centres stored on racks or shelves would be destroyed in a fire.
Fire insurance may pay for fire damage to the building and compensation for hardware, but the data will be lost.
One diskette can hold information worth millions of dollars - a huge economic loss that can force a company into bankruptcy if it has no back up.
Daily back up is essential to keep the risk of loss as low as possible.
Lampertz Safes are subjected to some of the most rigorous tests in the world at the Technical University of Braunschweing (Germany).
They are subjected to temperatures of about 1,090C for two hours, and then dropped from a height of 9.15 metres.
The temperature within the safes must, at all times, remain below 55 C.
Lampertz also tests its safes against bombs, bullets and magnetic fields.
One Lampertz model S4 safe protected files at Olivetti from a fire well enough for the magnetic information to be easily deciphered afterwards.
Lampertz was recently awarded ISO 9001 certification, which assures quality control throughout the manufacturing process.
The Techno Data Safe provides security for decentralised data communications.
More banks and companies are beginning to use file servers or front-end processors to become independent of the host computer.
Every file server is a small stand-alone computer system. In the case of damage, connections are interrupted. In a bank, for example, there is no guarantee that money transfers will go through. It could mean the loss of millions of dollars in transactions.
The Techno Data Safe is fully air-conditioned and can hold up to three file servers.
It can protect them against fire, water and manipulation.
The safe has an alarm that can be connected to a general system.
The security exhibit will be on from today to Friday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
