Its seems pretty common now that we here about data loss yet again. But is it so surprising in the modern day?

We have so many gadgets now we can copy data onto and we can copy so much data in one go that without dscipline and procedures its going to happen. The problem is not a computer one in most cases its a human one. Most of the goverment data loss scandals have been when the correct protoccol has not been followed. What is annoying is that there were the procedures in place to prevent the loss, but they were ignored.

Part of the reason is that we still don't quite see how valuable data is, if the same people had been handling cash or jewels they would have acted differently but because it was a bunch of computer data they thought nothing of it.

Only when we realise how vaulable data can be to the right (Or in most cases wrong) people can be then will we start protecting it better and start following the procedures in place.

Make sure your company has the procedures in place.

Make sure your staff understand these procedures.

Make sure they understand why they are important.

If you can then disable the ability to use USB pens, flash drives and even writing to CD's/DVD's. Most users don't need the facility.

With laptops make sure they are password protected and also that if there is any sensitive data on there that it is encrypted at he very least.

But most of all realise how important data can be!!