Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Test Your Backups

When was the last time you tested your backup tapes? What do I mean by test? I mean actually read files back from the tape. There is no other way to be confident that you can restore files in case of a disaster.

This process will accomplish 2 things. First, it will insure your backup process is doing what it is supposed to be doing. And second, it will insure that you or your IT staff refresh your memories on how to restore files, which just may come in handy if disaster strikes. I suggest you run this process 2 to 4 times per year.

Before you test your backups make sure you know what you are doing. You don't want to overwrite your accounting data with information from 3 months ago.

Monday, November 08, 2004

A Spammer Gets Canned

Jeremy Jaynes has been convicted and now sentenced under Virginia's state law against spamming. He was sentenced to 9 years in jail! Think that's a lot? He made more than $24 Million sending millions of spam messages. Yes, that's $24,000,000. With those types of dollars it's easy to see why people get involved with spam. I hope this is the first of many long term sentences that may put a little fear in these guys.