Scenario: Unknown PCB (printed circuit board) Failure A solid-state drive (SSD) is simply a printed circuit board (PCB) with typically 3 basic types of chips soldered to it; DRAM, NAND and a controller (aka the “brain”). Each chip must be perfectly aligned with its specific location on the PCB, and…
If you are going to be away from home or shutting down your business during the holidays, here are some tips to keep your important data safe from harm’s way. Back Up First and foremost, make sure you have everything important backed up. A backup is just a copy, stored…
In many ways, Malcolm Foggio is like most other teenage boys. He enjoys soccer. Listens to popular music. Likes ice cream. But, unlike others his age, Malcolm started his own non-profit foundation, at age 11, to fight childhood cancer. Malcolm is a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with a serious…
Data breaches have become an almost predictable problem with banks and major retailers. Now a couple of telephone companies have been fined $10 million for violating security laws designed to protect the confidentiality of customers proprietary information (PI). The customer names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers…
Managing the risk of a data breach in today’s environment of mounting digital threats on assets and proprietary data is an ongoing battle for many businesses. The Ponemon Institute’s 2014 Cost of Data Breach study found that the average cost of an organization’s single data breach is $5.9 million. While…
Scenario: System Area Corruption There are different types of corruption that can occur in an SSD. In this article, the specific type we will be discussing is more commonly known as “system area corruption.” We’re all familiar with operating systems (OS) and file systems. What you may not be aware…
Data breaches are a fact of life nowadays, so it’s not exactly surprising to learn of another hack in which more than 4.5 million medical patient records were recently stolen from Community Health, a Tennessee health care company. One of the largest hospital groups in the country, Community Health has…
The new iOS8 operating system for Apple’s lineup of portable computing devices is available for download on September 17. Before making the move, here’s what you should do to safely complete the upgrade process. First, if you haven’t already done so, make a backup copy of all data on every…
CD rot sounds like yet another horrible disease du jour, but it’s not quite that. It’s what can happen over time to the recorded contents of compact disks and it’s not reversible. The Library of Congress, which maintains copies of important commercial recordings and printed materials, is struggling with the…
Scenario: Data Deletion Data deletion occurs when a user deletes data and then empties the recycle/trash bin. TRIM Command In order to maintain optimal performance, all modern solid-state drives utilize the TRIM command. When enabled, this command executes automatically to delete and reset data that has been “Trashed” or “Recycled” and prepare…
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