The power went out before I could save the file!

My system shut down before I could save the file!!

Oh no! I deleted the wrong file.

Perhaps the biggest loss in productivity is not hackers, viruses, worms or Trojan Horses, but no backups. Viruses will continue to attempt to affect the network, however, a good backup system can help us.

Backups should be made to your power systems in the form of alternate power resources. Backups can be taken to CDs, DVDs, other hard drive, Optical discs, tapes and the likes. There are two general types of backups that can be performed:

• Full System backup: when you take a backup of every byte of data and software on your hard drive
• Partial System backup: when you take a backup of only the data that has changed since the last backup
• Ideally the security police should define what information needs to be stored and may define what process to follow in terms of implementing a backup.

Save your documents often. If necessary you can configure your applications to "Allow fast saves" or "Auto save every 10 min". You can also get used to the habit of keeping an alternate storage location for your working files on your local PC. By saving locally, you can continue to work on documents if the network goes down. In a Windows 2000 environment, you can work with the Offline File Wizard which will give you more control over this process. If you wish you can allocate an order of importance to your files, and then at a minimum, make sure that the most critical files on your list are backed up regularly.

As with any information, verify that your backup systems are performing valid backups by trying to restore from them. After you have verified that you can restore files, start creating backups. Ensure that the backups are labeled and securely locked away.