A recent stolen laptop incident in Oklahoma City underscores the importance of regularly backing up your laptop’s data files. A husband-wife team of cancer researchers at the University of Oklahoma went into a Panera restaurant for a bite to eat and came out to discover their car window shattered and their laptop gone. That’s disheartening enough, but the laptop contained years of research data accumulated in their search for a cure for prostate cancer.
It gets worse — an article about the incident states: “Unfortunately, most of the data was never backed up, a mistake Shin said could be a major setback in the fight against cancer.”
Wow. Years of cancer research stored on a laptop, not backed up, and left in plain sight in a vehicle. That’s a recipe for disaster. To avoid being the subject of a similar news story, I implore you to:
- Regularly back up the data files from your laptop AND your desktop workstations. Work with your IT support to find a secure, reliable back-up method.
- Do not leave your laptop in plain sight in a vehicle, which invites an opportunistic theft. If you must leave it in a vehicle, lock it in the trunk or if you don’t have a trunk, hide it out of sight.
- Do not store critical and/or sensitive information on a laptop or any other mobile device that is easily stolen or lost. If you must, use whole disk encryption to protect the data from disclosure should it fall into the wrong hands. This is required by K-State’s Data Classification and Security Policy.
