Security
Data security refers to the protection of data from unauthorized access, use, change, disclosure and destruction and includes network security, physical security, and file security.
Storage & Backup
Data storage refers to holding your data files in a secure location that you can readily and easily access. Data backup, in contrast, refers to saving additional copies of your data in separate physical or virtual locations from data files in storage.
Why should you secure and backup your data?
Your data is the foundation of your research! If you lose your data, recovery could be slow, costly, or impossible. It is important that you secure, store, and backup your data on as regular a basis as possible!
Securing your data will help to prevent:
Keeping reliable backups is an important part of data management. Regular backups protect against the risk of damage or loss due to hardware failure, software or media faults, viruses or hacking, power failure, or even human errors.
Security
Security needs to be considered for all copies of your data, including your working data set, backup copies and archived copies.
Storage & Backup
One of the most important data management tasks is keeping backups of your data. There is a real risk of losing data through hard drive failure or accidental deletion.
Note that for some types of data and sensitive research, you may have restrictions on where you can safely put your data and its copies. Email us at data@cmu.libanswers.com if you have concerns about where to best store your data!