By Chris Preimesberger - A new study confirms what a great many people in IT already suspected: Companies of all sizes are vulnerable to costly and damaging e-mail outages because they trust their messaging infrastructure to a single server and do not have an adequate backup and recovery plan in case of a disaster.

ApplicationContinuity.org surveyed 434 IT professionals responsible for e-mail continuity in small (0-99 employees), medium (100-999 employees) and large (1,000 or more employees) enterprises. ResearchCorp.org provided the analysis.
Only 21 percent of respondents have implemented a disaster avoidance strategy, while 29 percent of midsized companies are operating with only a single Exchange server, and have no application continuity plan in place.

 [Read the article on EWeek.com]

By JIM SALTER, AP Business Writer

ST. LOUIS - Charter Communications officials believe a software error during routine maintenance caused the company to delete the contents of 14,000 customer e-mail accounts.

There is no way to retrieve the messages, photos and other attachments that were erased from inboxes and archive folders across the country on Monday, said Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for the suburban St. Louis-based company.

“We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error,” Lamont said Thursday when the company announced the gaff.

Charter, one of the nation’s largest cable TV operators, also provides telephone and high-speed Internet service. It has applied a $50 credit to the bill of each customer whose account was affected by the mistake, Lamont said.

[Read the Article Here]

By Mary Jander, Byte and Switch

An unencrypted backup tape missing from an Iron Mountain storage facility has forced a major credit card company that specializes in online credit protection to contact hundreds of thousands of customers.

Read More…

By Grayson Kamm, First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The target may be high-tech, but the emotion involved is as old as humanity. Spite, anger, and revenge. Police say that’s what filled a woman’s heart after she picked up the classified ads.

When Marie Cooley came across a job that looked like hers in the classifieds, she admits she was certain she was about to be fired.

Read More…

It took GE Money two months to reconstruct the missing tape and identify the people whose information was lost. Since December, the company has been notifying consumers in batches of several thousand and telling them to phone a call center set up to deal with the breach. The notification is expected to be completed next week.

Read More…

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fueled by a combination of factors, including the tremendous growth in digital data generated by individuals and small businesses, the worldwide online backup services market is poised for growth. IDC estimates revenue for this emerging market to reach $715 million by 2011, representing a 33.3% compound annual growth (CAGR) between 2006 and 2011.

“Consumers and small businesses especially are interested in alternative methods of protecting their data, as traditional backup methods fall short regarding efficiency, reliability, and ease-of-use,” said Doug Chandler, research director for Storage Services at IDC. “Online backup has become an attractive approach for many customers, with the advent of cheaper broadband access, users’ greater comfort level with Web-based services, and the growing business need for a second site for remote data protection purposes.”

Among key assumptions behind IDC’s forecast are the following:

• More than 50% of spending in this market will be in North America in earlier years, with other regions gaining share through 2011.
• Adoption by consumers and small businesses will dominate the market for several years, with slower adoption by medium-sized businesses and enterprises.
• Year-over-year growth will slow beginning in 2010, as services practices begin to standardize, pricing competition has an impact, the supplier community consolidates, and in some cases online backup becomes a built-in feature in other online/Web-based services offerings.

IDC’s study, Online Backup Services Forecast 2007 - 2011: A New Market Emerges (IDC #209868), presents a five-year forecast for the online backup services market, discusses key issues and offers guidance for providers.

To purchase this document, call IDC’s Sales hotline at 508-988-7988 or email sales@idc.com.

About IDC

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 900 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 90 countries worldwide. For more than 43 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

From the Associated Press

The loss or theft of personal data such as credit-card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn’t expected to turn around soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

And while companies, government agencies, schools and other institutions are spending more to protect an ever-increasing volume of data with more sophisticated firewalls and encryption, the investment often is too little too late.

[Read the article]