Data backup and data protection is a crucially important element of the IT department, because the information that a company has built up over the years can be critical to the smooth running of a business going forward. There are two major aspects to data protection; one is that the company information getting into the wrong hands and the other major one is losing critical information that is crucial to the running of a business. As more information is being moved electronically in today's world it is all the more important to be able to manage and control the movement of data that belongs to the company. On the one hand it is great to be able to send large volumes of information quickly but having this capability increases the risk of data loss.

While it is important that we continue to have the ability to move large volumes of data quickly it is also important that we manage the movement of our data. This can be done in a variety of ways from simply making sure that files are password protected, all the way to data encryption. If you're working in a small company that doesn't have the budgets to implement a data encryption policy there are other steps one can take to protect data that belongs to the company.

• Using password protected files on sensitive information particularly in finance or R&D.

• And using a central server to store information.

• Not saving any data on the C-drive of a laptop.

• Making sure that laptops are password protected.

If a business has the budget to implement a data encryption policy it is a very effective way of protecting company information. This is especially so in laptops. We keep hearing in the news on a regular basis about laptop theft in corporate business, unfortunately very often these laptops while password protected do not have any encryption software loaded which makes access to the information relatively easy. We are told by the authorities is very often when laptops are stolen it is mainly by the opportunistic thief where the main intention is just to sell on the hardware to turn a quick buck and it is very rare that laptops are stolen purely for the data. This being the case corporate business should have a policy of making sure that sensitive data is adequately protected especially with the likes of financial institutions or any companies that stores financial data on customers. Because a lot of payments are made via direct debit this automatically means that companies have very sensitive information stored about their customers and very often this information is not adequately protected, simply this is not good enough. Apart from the obligation to protect sensitive information it should never be the case that financial records or medical records are stored on laptops. These days most people have access to a broadband connection which means that even if you're on the move you should be able to dial-in to the company server to access any information required. If this is the case no information should be stored on the C-drive of a laptop by using a server to access and store information means the loss of a laptop only requires hardware replacement and not the loss of any data.

The fact remains that once information is mobile it needs to be protected and the message is that it is possible to protect information even with small budgets by taking small steps to protect company information. Also we are always at risk of our property being stolen, this being the case our data protection policies need to be robust enough to protect our information.