A few weeks ago I caught an article but didn't blog it... turns out the other shoe finally dropped. In an April 22 article on InternetNews.com, the aptly named Paul Shread reported that document storage firm Iron Mountain admitted losing backup tapes belonging to one of its clients.At the time Iron Mountain declined to name the client, but this weekend news broke that the tapes contained about 600,000 names of current and former Time Warner Inc. employees.Back in April, Iron Mountain advised its clients that they should be encrypting data on backup tapes. While sound advice, that doesn't help protect data that's already been lost. Why isn't encryption more common? As I've occasionally noted in some interviews, you'd be surprised how much additional computing overhead encryption can require, which is why lots of companies don't bother with it. But with computing power so cheap these days, and the risks of data spills so great, I expect we'll see more encryption being employed.Meanwhile, in a letter to Time Warner employees explaining the loss of the tapes, their Chief Security Officer Larry Cockell sounded a hopeful note:
To date, the investigation has not found any evidence that the tapes or their contents have been accessed or misused. In addition, the information on the tapes is in a form that is not easily accessed.
Scuttlebutt inside Time Warner says that executives were comparing the backup tape format to that of an 8-Track cassette. So as long as the tapes aren't found by an identity thief with a 1971 Chevelle with an aftermarket Radio Shack stereo, then everything's cool!