UK Government’s Use of Outmoded Storage Technology

Farmers’ Weekly has reported that two back up tapes, containing thousands of farmers’ bank details, have been lost by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Concerned whistleblowers recently leaked the story to the publication.

The Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) knew about the loss, back in May, says Farmers’ Weekly, and the RPA knew in September, but nothing was done to advise farmers of the risk they faced.

Quite who is responsible and how the tapes were lost is still being hotly debated with a lot of buck passing going on. According to one Farmers’ Weekly source, the tapes weren’t encrypted, as they should have been, increasing the risk.

This sorry clearly illustrates the problem of using tape as a medium for backing-up confidential data. Tape is very vulnerable to human error. It has to be taken off site and stored, which leads to potential loss and damage. Human error is the most common cause of difficulties with tape back-up, while failure of the tape itself is another frequent problem.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of IT security specialist Wick Hill, value added distributor specialised in secure infrastructure solutions, commented: "It really wasn’t necessary for the RPA to put itself at risk by using tape for backup. Tape is a very old technology and there are modern alternatives available which don’t use tape and could have avoided these problems.

"Barracuda Networks, for example, has a solution which combines a server on-site, for fast restoration of data locally, with secure offsite cloud-based storage, hosted by UK data centres, where data is replicated. Backing up is done automatically and no tape is involved.

“Given that Government is looking to save money in the current recession, the RPA could also have cut its costs and saved on manpower by using this method of back up.

“The combination of inclusive backup software, integrated local storage, data de-duplication technology, and offsite cloud-based storage leads to significantly simplified deployment, less storage space required and cost savings from increased productivity.”

The Barracuda Backup Service provides a complete and affordable data back-up solution from a single vendor. It can back up data directly from nearly all operating systems and comes included with backup software to natively provide application backups of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows System State.

The combination of inclusive backup software, integrated local storage, data de-duplication technology, and offsite cloud-based storage, found in the Barracuda Backup Service, leads to significantly simplified deployment and cost savings for customers.

Simple to use and occupying up to 1/50th of the normal backup storage footprint, the Barracuda Backup Service provides both convenience and exceptional value.

The Barracuda Backup Service safely maintains backup data offsite using efficient and secure data transfers to offsite data centres and provides industry-leading policy management for data retention. Replication techniques in the Barracuda Backup Service benefit from advanced data de-duplication technology designed by Barracuda Networks to conserve bandwidth and reduce storage requirements.

Capabilities of the Barracuda Backup Service include:

• Automatic Backups: Administrators set schedules to run backups throughout the day, eliminating many risks associated with manual backup techniques.
• Included Backup Software: The Barracuda Backup Service provides all of the backup software most businesses require, including native backups of Microsoft Exchange and SQL Servers and
• Windows System State: Full Local Backup and Restore. The Barracuda Backup Server offers sufficient storage for a complete copy of an organization’s current and historical data. Administrators can restore data directly from the Barracuda Backup Server at fast speeds.
• Secure, Cloud-based Offsite Storage: Affordable cloud-based storage provides an offsite data backup for disaster recovery. Multiple layers of encryption, including AES 256-bit, protect the integrity of data transferred and stored offsite at two data centres on highly redundant disk-based hardware with the Barracuda Backup Service.
• Data De-Duplication: The Barracuda Backup Service reduces the storage and transfer requirements for backups by analyzing each file at the bit level and only copying, transferring and archiving new bit sequences. This advanced de-duplication technology is applied within a single file’s revision history  as well as across the entire backup volume.
• Multiple Location Centralized Management: The Barracuda Backup Service allows for the management of backup infrastructure across multiple remote locations from a single administration login. Service alert notifications are  automatically sent to administrators.
• Regulatory Compliance: The Barracuda Backup Service encompasses the security requirements to cover a wide range of industry-specific regulations.

The Barracuda Backup Service user interface makes it easy to manage and back up data on the Barracuda Backup Server and to schedule reoccurring offsite data backups to the cloud. In addition, Barracuda Central, an advanced operations centre, provisions and monitors the health of the Barracuda Backup Service and provides 24×7 technical support and emergency restoration assistance in the event of disaster or local backup system failure.