Opinion: Lost data tapes are non-events

Concern for security is justified should a laptop or USB drive be stolen

By Jerome Wendt

September 26, 2007 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - The recent theft of a tape containing bank-account and other sensitive financial data for all Connecticut state agencies made for great headlines but, all things considered, it was probably a non-event (see "Connecticut sues Accenture over stolen backup tape").

Much of the concern about lost, misplaced and stolen tapes stems from the fear that the data stored on these tapes is in an unencrypted format. While this concern is certainly justified if a laptop or USB drive should go missing, the risk of just anyone retrieving usable data from a tape is almost nonexistent for the following reasons:

Numerous tape formats. 3592, 9840, 4mm, 8mm, LTO, SAIT and SDLT are just some of the available tape formats. To read data from any tape first requires access to a tape drive that can recognize and read that specific tape media.
Multiple generations of tape formats. Linear Tape Open is one of the newest tape formats at about nine years old, and it is already in its fourth generation -- LTO-4. However, a tape drive can only read data back from tape drives that are, at most, two generations older than the tape drive, and it can't read data stored on newer generations of tape cartridges.
Different backup software. There are as many brands and versions of backup software as there are of tape drives and tape. So unless the thief happens to have the right combination of backup software, tape drives and tape, the data will remain inaccessible.

There are multiple known instances of lost or stolen tapes but, to the best of my knowledge, not one reported instance of anyone recovering and maliciously using data stored on missing tapes. While that is not reason enough to leave data unencrypted, it certainly should give organizations some degree of assurance that a missing tape does not automatically equate to compromised data.

Jerome Wendt is the president and lead analyst of DCIG Inc. He may be reached at jerome.wendt@att.net.

Read more about storage in Computerworld's Storage Knowledge Center.

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