The Utility of Backing up Data, Essay Example

Although I have learned much concerning the utility of backing up data throughout both my education and general experience as a technology user, I have not had much of an opportunity to learn about threats to this process before studying chapter 9. The chapter explains that common ways to lose data include mechanical hard drive failure, fires, floods, malware, and stolen mobile devices. Many of these means of data loss are physical, but the more interesting and difficult data loss processes to prevent include mechanical hard drive failure and malware. While it is important to provide suggestions to individuals so that physical damage of data storage does not occur, more creative methods are needed to protect this data from a technical point of view.

The most challenging concept that the chapter presented concerns utilizing document restrictions to reduce security threats. Although it is intuitive that this would reduce the ability of data access through use of malware, the implementation of this information technology security is less straightforward. Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) are useful ways of restricting this access, but this may not always be enough to protect information.  Therefore, going beyond the textbook, I aimed to identify a solution to this problem. Although technology is not frequently used beyond DRM and DLP, the Australian Government provides guidelines for document safety in “Information security management guidelines”. The information explained aligns with what is discussed in the chapter, but this institution has implemented legal proceedings to reduce internet crime. Therefore, if technology restrictions are not enough, it may be necessary to supplement digital security with legislative and judicial procedures. The field of IT would benefit greatly from this consideration across the world.