ecure Your Data With Backups and Encryption

Anyone who regularly uses computers has experienced a disaster of some sort. Either your computer crashes just before you save your document to disk, or in the worst case a computer failure renders your disk unreadable. While you might think that hard disks don't fail very often, it happens much more often than you think.

It's important to prepare for this type of disaster, and of course being prepared means having your data backed up. When - not if - the worst happens you need to be able to recover important documents and information from other sources.

Backing up is actually quite easy to do these days. There are many simple, automated solutions, a good selection of which are also free. Even if the right tool for you is not free, if you have ever experienced a failure you'll quickly agree that a reliable backup strategy is worth every penny.

You may not even need to look far. Many operating systems and most external hard drives now come complete with automatic backup software which you can schedule to complete daily at a time convenient for you.

Another scenario to prepare for is theft; your computer, particularly a portable laptop or netbook, could be stolen. Then not only do you lose your data, but some thief might now have access to it.

This is when encryption plays an important part in keeping your personal data and sensitive information secure and safe. One approach is to use encryption tools such as TrueCrypt to create virtual encrypted drives whose contents are nearly impossible to access without the passphrase.

Stand-alone single-file encryption tools such as AxCrypt, or encryption options in tools such as 7-Zip are also reliable and secure options for keeping data secure. Do not rely on password protection built into most general purpose applications such as Word or Excel - most of those are fine for keeping honest people honest, but are easily cracked with information found on the internet. Similarly, it's unwise to rely on Windows own Encrypted Filesystem - not because it's easy to crack, but rather for just the opposite: there are common scenarios that, without appropriate precautions, can render your data completely inaccessible - even to you.

While you may not experience a computer disaster anytime soon, like the Boy Scouts you still need to be prepared. Back up your computer and consider keeping your sensitive information safe and secure in some encrypted form. With the process both simple and often free, it pays to be prepared.