Taken to the cleaners, but data safe

July 2010 Information Security, Infrastructure

It is the nightmare scenario which every business owner fears: over the weekend, the office is cleaned out by thieves – and they have targeted all the computer equipment. For Izimo Management and Cleaning Services, that meant a lifetime of electronically stored records, accounting information, timesheets, clients, schedules, the works. But it also was not too big a problem for the company’s continued existence, because it had a secure, offsite copy of its business critical data stashed safely out of reach, thanks to Cactus Backup and Attix5.

Izimo is a specialist provider of outsourced cleaning services, with a staff complement of approximately 800 personnel. Like any other business, it is obliged to keep sound records of all business activities and has an information store which is essential to the sustainability of the company.

Managing director Carl Rheeders says the shock of discovering everything gone is substantial. “Of course, when you realise that the computers are gone, the next thing you immediately think is ‘will the backup actually work’.”

It is a question which has occurred to many a business owner, especially since a great number of companies still use outdated, inefficient or downright sketchy backup practices. Rheeders confirms that prior to engaging with Attix5 reseller, Cactus Backup, it too had a less than sound system in place: “Previously, we were using external USB drives to store our data. The bad news is that when the criminals swept through the office, they took all of those too.” In addition to this, any backup solution that relies on manual processes are fallible due to the human factor. The Attix5 solution removes this risk from the backup process.

The configuration of the solution also involves setting a schedule for the backups to take place. “Without any impact on the users of the computers, the Attix5 agent scans each machine, identifying any changes in the data. Only these changes are then transmitted over the Internet, to the remote offsite copy.”

Michael Law, Attix5 MD, says this model provides for very low bandwidth utilisation. “Additionally, all transmitted information is secured with 256-bit encryption.” With the remote copy, Law notes, even in an extreme case such as that of Izimo, the business can quickly recover its essential information. “The only thing that is required is hardware on to which to restore the data.”

While the data can be retrieved over the Internet (to anywhere in the world) in a larger-scale loss such as that experienced by Izimo, Yates opted to physically transport a copy from the remote data centre to the customer’s premises.

Rheeders picks up the story: “We discovered, to our joy, that the service that Cactus Backup provides really does work. The Attix5 Backup Professional service had all of our data quite safe despite the fact that we no longer had any computers.”

Getting that data back, he says, just took a little time for the insurance to settle the claim for new hardware. “As soon as the new hardware had been reconfigured, the data was restored via the Cactus Backup Server. It was all there: documents, e-mail, Pastel Accounting, VIP Payroll. The long and the short of it is that without this service in place, there is a very real risk that our business would have been set back by months while we tried to restore our systems from our paper-based records. With Cactus and Attix5, the only real impact was serious inconvenience. That you can recover from; lost data, you cannot.”

For more information contact Michael Law, managing director, Attix5, +27 (0)11 575 0134, [email protected]





Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

Highest increase in global cyberattacks in two years
Information Security News & Events
Check Point Global Research released new data on Q2 2024 cyber-attack trends, noting a 30% global increase in Q2 2024, with Africa experiencing the highest average weekly per organisation.

Read more...
Upgrade your PCs to improve security
Information Security Infrastructure
Truly secure technology today must be designed to detect and address unusual activity as it happens, wherever it happens, right down to the BIOS and silicon levels.

Read more...
Open source code can also be open risk
Information Security Infrastructure
Software development has changed significantly over the years, and today, open-source code increasingly forms the foundation of modern applications, with surveys indicating that 60 – 90% of the average application's code base consists of open-source components.

Read more...
DeepSneak deception
Information Security News & Events
Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis researchers have discovered a new malicious campaign which is distributing a Trojan through a fake DeepSeek-R1 Large Language Model (LLM) app for PCs.

Read more...
Fastest PCIe Gen 5.0 NVMe SSD
Products & Solutions Infrastructure
Sandisk has unveiled the WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 5.0 technology, an internal SSD delivering speeds up to 14 900 MB/s and capacities up to 4 TB, with 8 TB solutions available soon.

Read more...
SA’s strained, loadshedding-prone grid faces cyberthreats
Power Management Information Security
South Africa’s energy sector, already battered by decades of underinvestment and loadshedding, faces another escalating crisis; a wave of cyberthreats that could turn disruptions into catastrophic failures. Attacks are already happening internationally.

Read more...
Unified storage solution
Products & Solutions Infrastructure
CASA Software has announced the local availability of Nexsan’s upgraded unified storage solution, Unity NV4000, which is ideal for mixed workloads, from virtualisation and video surveillance to secure backup and recovery.

Read more...
Almost 50% of companies choose to pay the ransom
News & Events Information Security
This year’s Sophos State of Ransomware 2025 report found that nearly 50% of companies paid the ransom to get their data back, the second-highest rate of ransom payment for ransom demands in six years.

Read more...
Survey highlights cost of cyberdamage to industrial companies
Kaspersky Information Security News & Events
The majority of industrial organisations estimate their financial losses caused by cyberattacks to be over $1 million, while almost one in four report losses exceeding $5 million, and for some, it surpasses $10 million.

Read more...
Digital economy needs an agile approach to cybersecurity
Information Security News & Events
South Africa is the most targeted country in Africa when it comes to infostealer and ransomware attacks. Being at the forefront of the continent’s digital transformation puts South Africa in the crosshairs for sophisticated cyberattacks

Read more...










While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.