Archive for the ‘DriveSavers’ Category

Massachusetts Mandates Data Security

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
 
Massachusetts Mandates Data Security

On March 1st, 2010 the state of Massachusetts made changes to its data protection law. Known as 201 CMR 17.00, the changes are designed to ease compliance of regulations initially passed in February 2009. For a complete list of changes download the PDF by clicking here. Here are a few highlights:
  • Specific personal information must be protected: a Massachusetts resident’s first name and last name or first initial and last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements that relate to such resident: (a) Social Security number; (b) driver’s license number or state issued identification card number; or (c) financial account number, or credit or debit card number, with or without any required security code, access code, personal identification number or password.
  • Every service provider that owns or licenses personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program which must be put into writing.
  • Data must be encrypted: Encryption of all personal information stored on laptops or other portable devices including backups.
These are just a few of the many important changes in the Massachusetts law. Other states have their own versions to protect data breaches of sensitive data, some can be reviewed here: http://datalossdb.org/primary_sources.
As a worldwide provider of data recovery services, DriveSavers is fully compliant with the laws governing data security in every US state. For information about DriveSavers SAS 70 Type II security audit, HIPAA compliance, encryption and high security data recovery services please visit this webpage.

 

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Free Evaluations Now Available for RAID Devices

Friday, April 2nd, 2010
To address the growing demand for the recovery of RAID systems, DriveSavers is now offering free evaluations for RAID devices with up to four physical drives installed. (Some restrictions apply.) Evaluations available for both our Standard and Economy service levels.
 
With high capacity hard drives dropping even further in price over the last few years, RAID devices have gained popularity for their speed and redundancy. Many individuals and businesses now employ RAID peripherals attached directly to local machines or NAS devices over a network.
 
Most desktop RAID peripherals and NAS devices arrive in their box preconfigured to maximize performance using RAID level 0. While the speed benefits can be significant, there is certainly a high risk of data loss if even one hard drive fails. Backing up these devices should be a priority.
 
In addition, DriveSavers has found that although RAID level 5 configured devices offer the ability to automatically rebuild a dataset when one hard drive fails; oftentimes two drives fail simultaneously, leaving data not backed up susceptible to loss.
 
As always our goal is to help you and your customers recover their critical data in a timely, cost-effective manner. Since we began offering free evaluations, many of our reseller partners have found it easier to recommend DriveSavers for data recovery and customers are willing to explore their options and costs involved. Be sure to call DriveSavers anytime — 24/7 — whenever you need assistance with RAID or any other storage device. For more information on devices we recover visit this webpage.

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Checklist for Security of Data Recovery Service Providers

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

DriveSavers announced today that an independent study by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, has unveiled a Data Security Checklist for vetting third-party data recovery service providers.

The study, “Security of Data Recovery Operations,” conducted among IT security and IT support practitioners, is the first national study published on the security of data recovery operations for businesses and government organizations. DriveSavers is the only data recovery company worldwide that meets all the security requirements on the checklist.
Paul Reymann, CEO of Reymann Group and one of the nation’s foremost experts in regulatory compliance and information risk management comments, “The lack of information security protocols and practices in the vetting, selecting and use of data recovery service providers is not a potential problem-it’s a real problem! The checklist is a prudent solution to help ensure data recovery vendors protect sensitive data during the data recovery process.”
For companies that already have a strong vendor risk management program, mandated vendor management practices apply to all stages of the information life-cycle. CompuCom Systems, Inc., the leading IT outsourcing specialist, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have extremely stringent security protocol and auditing processes for their third-party vendors.

DriveSavers Data Recovery has experienced firsthand and passed the stringent security protocols of CompuCom and LLNL which include each of the requirements listed in the Data Security Checklist below.
“Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s data security standards are based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) recommendations. We strive to ensure that our mission critical data handled by third party vendors is protected at a level equivalent to the standards we hold for ourselves,” said Neda Gray, CISSP, Information Systems Security Officer for Operations and Business at LLNL. “We periodically require an exhaustive security assessment of our third party vendors.”
“Data security standards are set high by CompuCom to ensure that our customer’s data is never vulnerable,” said Dave Borgese, vice president at CompuCom Systems. “We require an exhaustive security assessment of all our third-party vendors. DriveSavers is SAS 70 Type II compliant and is guarded by a ‘defense-in-depth’ network architecture which provides the level of data security we promise to our customers.”
Not all companies have this level of security protocols in place for working with third-party vendors. The Ponemon Institute’s study confirms that there is a major gap in security protocols when selecting data recovery service providers.
Here is the recommended checklist that should be used for vetting third-party data recovery service providers. Data recovery service providers should follow these protocols:

Proof of internal information technology controls and data security safeguards, such as compliance with SAS 70 Audit Reports
Engineers trained and certified in all leading encryption software products and platforms

Proof of chain-of-custody documentation and certified secure network
Vetting and background checks of its employees
Secure and permanent data destruction when required

Use of encryption for data files in transit

Proof of Certified ISO 5 (Class 100) cleanroom

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