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IT managers nationwide should take a cue from Hurricane Katrina's
destructive power and develop disaster-recovery plans to safeguard their
computer systems against catastrophe, security experts advise.
"For people in New Orleans and Mississippi, it's too late to begin
disaster recovery plans. But this hurricane will probably rattle others
up and get them thinking about their own disaster recovery," said
Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer for security training and
research company Sans Institute.
To make the best use of
disaster-recovery plans, businesses not only need to take time to
develop the plans but also test them before a catastrophe, said Ullrich,
whose company
re-released a list of preparation tips to consider when faced with a
hurricane.
Companies should conduct a full system backup four days before the
expected arrival of a storm and have the data shipped off-site and out
of harm's way. Subsequent, incremental backups should also be sent
off-site, Sans advised. And, if possible, a final full system backup
should be conducted just before the storm's arrival, with the data
retained locally.
Main phone numbers for the affected offices can be redirected to an
off-site voice mailbox once electric power to the facilities is turned
off. This step is designed to keep customers and employees informed of
the company's status with voice mail messages.
Sans advised devising an alternate arrangement for handling
companywide help-desk issues and removing necessary equipment from
datacenters. For critical systems in the path of an approaching storm,
companies should consider encasing the equipment in plastic, Sans said.
And for satellite offices in the storm's path, Sans suggested
dispensing loaner laptops to key personnel and maintaining loaner
laptops that house complete content images, or ghost images, of the
desktops and laptops in that particular office.
While Hurricane Katrina is expected to cause extensive damage to the
Louisiana coastal region, it is not expected to affect the
infrastructure that keeps the Internet up and running, Ullrich said.
"There is nothing real big in that area, so we don't expect to see
any effects outside of there," Ullrich said.
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