Offsite backups for the rest of us?

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005, John Vetterli wrote:

> Just wondering: would keeping CDs and DVDs in a fireproof strongbox keep your
> data safe and readable if there was a major fire?

A couple of reasons I'm not a fan of this type of solution:

1. Some "fireproof" safes are "fireproof" because _they_ will survive a 
   fire - not their sensitive contents.  You need to establish how hot it 
   will get in the safe for a fire of $x degrees for $y hours and hope it 
   a real fire does not exceed these specifications.

2. A firesafe only protects against some failure modes.  The building may 
   be hit by an aircraft or even a car resulting in a lot of damage and 
   the destruction of the safe.  A safe that is not properly secured may 
   actually be stolen.

   An offsite backup (sufficiently far away) protects against almost every 
   sort of disaster.  If a large asteroid hits the planet all bets are 
   off.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: +1-416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway-wgAaPJgzrDxH4x6Dk/4f9A at public.gmane.org http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml