CertiGuide to Security+

Magnetic media is also prone to damage by aging and extreme temperatures. Therefore, many organizations use temperature-controlled off-site data storage facilities (did you know that if you want to pony up the $$, you can store your data in Fort Knox?!), and have a policy of restoring and rewriting critical archival data before the useful life of the media is reached. If you need to read, write or store media in other than typical office conditions, check the removable media technology, and the specific brand of media you purchase, to make sure that it will function properly in your environment.

Another thing to keep in mind when deciding where to store magnetic media such as tape or diskettes (or hard disks) is that the data on the media is vulnerable to corruption if it is stored near a device that can disrupt the magnetic properties of the media. For example, it is not a good idea to store backup tapes on top of your big, bad computer speakers (which contain big magnets – somewhat similar to those used for bulk erasing magnetic media!).

Another concern regarding the use of tapes and diskettes as backup or archival media is that unlike hard disks, tapes and diskettes do not have self-contained read/write heads (the part of the drive that translates between magnetic impulses on the media, and the 0’s and 1’s understood by computers). This matters when considering restorability because it is possible, if the data was written on a drive whose heads are out of alignment, and then the restore is attempted on a drive with properly aligned heads that the data will not be readable, and in fact, will only be readable by the drive on which it was written. More than a few notebook owners, one of your authors included, know of at least one road warrior notebook whose floppy drive wrote diskettes readable only by it! The time to find this out, so that the drive can be replaced or repaired, is BEFORE you need to read the data off the media at another site. Therefore, if using magnetic media for backup/archival purposes, build into your operational schedule regular “restore” tests, and use a different system and different drive to perform the test.

A final concern about all media used for archiving is that it’s no use to have media that lasts for 50 years, if 50 years from now, you don’t have a way to read the data off of it. For this reason, many companies also store a duplicate tape/disk/CD-ROM unit with the media itself – and sometimes an entire PC, if the device uses a non-standard interface like a special PCI card rather than SCSI, IDE, etc.

**Figure 30: Sure Delete not only does a confirmed delete of files, it cleans up ‘empty space’ on drives and is free.**

3.2.4 Removable Media

3.2.4.2 CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable)

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CertiGuide for Security+ (http://www.CertiGuide.com/secplus/) on CertiGuide.com
Version 1.0 - Version Date: November 15, 2004

Adapted with permission from a work created by Tcat Houser et al.
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