Tag Archives: data storage

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Encrypting Personal Data

The state of Massachusetts has passed a new law that goes into effect May 1, 2009, that requires businesses that “own, license, store, or maintain personal information” on customers to encrypt that data, especially on portable devices such as laptops. That responsibility is extended from the primary business to contractors, such as telemarketing firms, and it extends to transmissions on wireless devices such as BlackBerries.

This law is more comprehensive than most other laws currently on the books. The law takes the view that companies have wide leeway to collect data—such as Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and financial account numbers—as long as they don’t cause overt harm to the consumers. The Massachusetts law is reflective of European law, which places more restrictions on data collection. The legislation is similar to HIPAA rules that govern the way medical information is protected. The Massachusetts law extends its encryption mandate to portable devices including flash drives, CDs, and cell phones. The problem is that encryption technology is not available for all of these devices.

Even businesses that have no facilities or personnel in Massachusetts should anticipate being subject to this new regulation if they maintain any personal information on a Massachusetts resident.

Firms that operate in the state, or with businesses in the state, are now required to designate an employee to maintain a security program. That worker must identify all paper and electronic records that contain personal information, and the devices that house that data. The security program has to include processes for granting and withdrawing employee access to sensitive information, developing authentication processes, assigning passwords, maintaining firewalls and malware protections, training employees, and creating discipline procedures for employees who violated the security rules.

Nevada also has a law that took effect January 1 that requires encryption of any personal information that leaves the computers of the original collector and passes electronically to another entity. But that law does not address laptops and portable devices.

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Protect Information on Mobile Devices

JumpVault is software that addresses concerns from a growing number of businesses whose employees regularly use BlackBerry, USB flash drives, and other mobile devices to transport and transfer data. JumpVault transforms an ordinary USB flash or mobile device, such as a BlackBerry, into a secure virtual container. JumpVault, created by QuickVault, Inc., is password protected and offers the option for meta data logging to track movement of mobile data files.

The company says JumpVault fully protects information on any mobile storage device with internal flash memory—no matter the file size or type. The product also functions as a backup unit for laptops and workstations often overlooked by enterprise business continuity and disaster recovery programs. That means contracts, proposals, business plans, personal documents, confidential documents, spreadsheets, and legal documents can be protected on mobile storage devices.

Sarbanes-Oxley, Payment Card Industry (PCI), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandate by law that record holders safeguard certain types of information. JumpVault’s data loss prevention features protect mobile data from unauthorized access or disclosure.

JumpVault software is fully contained on the USB-enabled mobile storage device and operates across a variety of computer operating systems including Windows, Vista, and Mac. JumpVault has a built-in 256-bit encryption and offers the option of scheduled transfer of data from PCs to corporate servers. Data stored on a BlackBerry, for example, cannot be accessed without authentication.

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Too Much Information

The amount of data people create now exceeds the amount of space available for storage. People sent e-mails, took digital pictures, processed credit cards, and generally did things that collectively created 281 exabytes of data by the end of 2007, according to the research company IDC. (“Exabyte” sounds made up, but it’s a real term meaning 1,000,000,000,000 megabytes.) IDC also added up all the computer drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and other devices that store data and estimated that their total capacity is only 264 exabtyes.

A lot of the data that is created—say, an Internet phone call—gets stored. Other data gets erased or recorded over. It’s the digital equivalent of a conversation going in one ear and out the other. But for the first time in human history, we couldn’t save all this information even if we wanted to, according to IDC.

Businesses are contributing to the data crunch. Wal-Mart, for example, adds a billion rows of data to its data warehouse every hour. But IDC estimates that 70% of the world’s data is created by individuals, either in their role as workers or private citizens. The information is stored on their computers or on other devices they control, not in the company data center.

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Online Inventory

One of the biggest barriers to effectively handling a claim for your client is helping them ensure they have a full inventory of the contents they lost. There has been various software solutions created to help with this problem.

AnywhereVault is a personal inventory Web site that helps people document their personal property and important paperwork so they can more easily recover from theft, fire, or other disaster. As a byproduct of completing a full inventory, the site enables users to determine if they have adequate insurance coverage and generates reports of their personal possessions that ease the process of filing and collecting on insurance claims.

AnywhereVault guides users through the process of documenting possessions, storing proof-of-ownership data including serial numbers and receipts, and uploading important documents, such as insurance policies and wills. Users also can upload photographs. The data can be sorted and organized in numerous reports that enable users to calculate value to ensure adequate insurance coverage and provide claims adjustors with proof of ownership documentation.

Users can choose from four plans that range from $15 to $80 per year depending on the volume of information they need to store. Anyone can sign up for a free 30-day trial. You can use this as a value-added service for your existing clients.

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Capture Pictures as Documents

scanR is a service that helps you capture information contained in whiteboards, documents, and business cards. You simply use your cell phone camera or digital camera to take clean photos of whiteboards, paper documents, and business cards. If you use your camera phone, you send the picture via MMS (also called Multimedia Messaging, PIX Messaging, or Picture Mail) or e-mail to scanR.

To send an MMS, take a photo, select the option to send the photo via MMS, address the message to doc@scanR.com for documents, wb@scanR.com for whiteboards, or bc@scanR.com for business cards, and send it. Most phones take less than one minute to upload the image. Larger images always give better results, so set your phone to take the largest possible image (biggest width and height) to send to scanR. If you’re using a digital camera, be sure to save it as a JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) file and send it via e-mail to scanR.

You will receive via e-mail a PDF file of the photo with the text converted, if possible. scanR currently has a free version, scanR Trial, as well as a premium paid version, scanR Pro. The premium version permits unlimited uploads and removes all advertising from its processed images. scanR Pro offers two plans: unlimited use for $2.99 monthly or $29.90 annually, or 40 uploads for $9.99.