Another Example of Why Online Backup Is Important

Here’s one more good example of why everybody and every business should have his, her or its data backed up somewhere safe online.

The Associated Press reported June 10 that billing records of about 2.2 million people at the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics were stolen from a courier’s vehicle.

“The records, described only as backup information tapes, included Social Security numbers of 1.3 million people treated at the university over the past 16 years, said Lorris Betz, senior vice president for health sciences. …The courier picked up the records on June 1. Instead of taking them to a storage center, he worked a second job and then went home, said Shane Manwaring, Salt Lake County deputy sheriff.The next day, he discovered that someone had broken into his vehicle outside his Kearns home and taken the box, Manwaring said.Investigators think the thief probably thought the box contained money.The courier … [who] had worked for Perpetual Storage for 18 years … was fired.James Nowa, vice president of Perpetual Storage, called the theft a ‘tragic incident’ and the first in the company’s 40 years. …The hospital regularly sends backup information to a secure, mountainside vault to prevent the complete loss of records in case of fire or earthquake.“

If the records had been backed up each night online, as more and more companies are now doing, this would never have happened.