Not good enough...some agencies fail at data protection

Not good enough...some agencies fail at data protection

A woman at one of my trainings objected to my insistence that agencies need to ensure their data is backed up.

She pointed out that if people in Christchurch had backed up their computers data at their offices or homes, their data would still be lost.

She's right. On the day of the second quake, many workers in Christchurch were at lunch. Laptops, diaries and records were all sitting in offices that either collapsed or have been since abandoned. This may be a more dramatic scenario than most agencies will face but how many people have all of their data on a laptop or a desk computer or usb stick that gets lost or stolen. How many records sit in offices that are burnt down?

In today's world data is vital. Could you survive without your financial records, donor database or volunteer lists?

Thats why I am a fan of backing up online. In  theory your data is safe on 3 or 4 or 5 servers around the world.  I use an online database, an online client records system, google docs and an online accounting package.

I cannot urge agencies enough to do this and it stuns me that people do not have back up in place.

A mate of mine recently confessed his charity does not back up their data. He is been one of a long list of people who have told me this.

I was recently talking to a not for profit agency recently who cannot print a list of their volunteers as "we dont know where that data is".

Not good enough. ...some agencies fail at data protection...some are probably okay..but how do we know how many. Agencies need to make it right.