Fire proof safe

AES.....lol ;)

Well personally I would hope a business would be using something better but in this day and age I don't take it for granted. ;) I'm no expert but I would bet that if you left a random looking dvd in a draw a typical burgular would not even notice it, nevermind steal it.
 
It is is always important to keep vital data and information secure and safe, this includes encryption methods and physical security measures. You never know someone may be after your data which could be very valuable.

A little fact for you:

The secret herbs and spices that go into KFC chicken are kept in sealed vial jars which are kept in a secured safe along with the recipe. The safe is secured in KFC HQ that can only be accessed by the CEO of KFC.

This is done so rival companies cannot obtain the finger lickin' recipe that makes KFC taste so good :)
 
You said it yourself, if the database is lost or stolen your customers data will be available to god knows who, resulting in mass fraud and your company being disgraced. It is basic IT practice to encrypt all sensitive information on removeable media and there should be someone employed to oversee IT security. It's irresponsible to leave customers personal data with such little protection, do you not respect your clients?

Do people learn nothing from all the missing government pen drives? :confused:

As a business owner you should be familliar with the good practice codes laid out by the information commisoners office on data security where encryption is specifically mentioned.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/docume...rity v 1.0_plain_english_website_version1.pdf

It's madness for a business owner to have a plain text customer database on a dvd in their house.

You really need to get a professional to advise you on these matters before something goes badly wrong. The data protection act requires you to have adequate security for your customers data.
 
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We dont have an IT specialist and never will, we are too small.

Our database and systems were written long before people fussed about encryption as such there is no facility to do this, taking it offsite is no different to breaking into the office and accessing the systems, we comply where we are required to by the ICO however even when shredding customers details there are no rules on what level of security we are required to use, it simply has to be "adequate" which is wholly subjective.

Nothing has gone wrong in 18 years so i dont expect it to now, we bank hundreds of credit cards a day and dont have a single CVV number either.....why, because the bank doesnt require them - we have NEVER had a single card fraud through our systems!

That said policies are being reviewd with IT to bring it up to date so i shall look at how it is done and see how we can improve it and make it safer for all.
 
We dont have an IT specialist and never will, we are too small.

Our database and systems were written long before people fussed about encryption as such there is no facility to do this, taking it offsite is no different to breaking into the office and accessing the systems, we comply where we are required to by the ICO however even when shredding customers details there are no rules on what level of security we are required to use, it simply has to be "adequate" which is wholly subjective.

Nothing has gone wrong in 18 years so i dont expect it to now, we bank hundreds of credit cards a day and dont have a single CVV number either.....why, because the bank doesnt require them - we have NEVER had a single card fraud through our systems!

That said policies are being reviewd with IT to bring it up to date so i shall look at how it is done and see how we can improve it and make it safer for all.

I think you may need to look at bringing your company in to line with ISO27001 or something similiar.

I would expect any customer details to be encrypted at some level or if they are not, stored in a secure location. So your need for a safe isnt completly invalid.

What I would suggest which would probably be easier, is get some encryption software, encrypt your DB etc and store a copy on site and off site.
 
The DB on the server cant be encrypted - its too old!!!! The backups can, and should, this will be changed as of monday.
 
The idea is to keep it offsite, the safe is for my house, one of the other directors also has a safe at his house where important documents, and backups are kept.
 
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