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I agree with Chris. Yesterday UCLA reported a break-in that exposed SSNs and other personal information for 800,000 people (which must included fac/staff/students/applicants for decades). That was a tightly-guarded server locked in a machine room on campus. And Boeing revealed that for the third time this year (!!!) a laptop with SSNs and other personal info was stolen, affecting 322,000 people. This was a direct violation of company policy. So I think a better statement would be that you shouldn't use home backup for systems that house confidential or sensitive information. And you should not carry around large datasets with personal information on laptops, thumb drives, or other portable devices. It might help if people thought of sensitive data as radioactive. You wouldn't carry radioactive materials in your car or to your house. /rich On 12/14/06, Chris Wolf <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I'm not sure I see the problem with taking backups home for off-site storage > in some situations. It's not perfect, but it adds an enormous amount of > additional safety in a very cheap and convenient way. I have even > recommended that faculty keep one copy of their backup of their office > desktop computer at home. Regarding possible theft, faculty all over campus > take their university-owned portable computers containing university data > home (not to mention all over the world), and I would say that a computer is > much more likely to be stolen during a home burglary (or from a traveler in > an airport) than some tapes are. > > I agree that for AIS servers and other machines that have large amounts of > sensitive data, it's worthwhile to have a more secure arrangement, but for > many other situations in academic departments a home is not a bad off-site > location. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: MSU Network Administrators Group > > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter J Murray > > Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 4:24 PM > > To: [log in to unmask] > > Subject: [MSUNAG] off site backups > > > > What solutions are different units on campus using for 'off site' > > backup, or at least, backups in another building. Is there a > > service that ACNS or AIS provides for those of us who want to > > keep a redundant data source outside our building? Are > > system administrators taking home tapes with them for off > > site storage (and is that even allowed)? Does MSU have an > > agreement or preferred vendor for off site backup? > > >