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Data Security Laws and Encrypted Hard Drives

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Josh started this discussion 14 years 3 months ago

Has anyone looked into data security laws? In some US states, the law requires companies to encrypt all hard drives that contain certain data like credit card numbers:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153553/states_ramp_up_data_security_laws.html

The above article lists the comprehensive computer security requirements for the state of Massachusetts.

Even if there aren't laws in your country or region, it might be a good idea to at least encrypt the hard drives on company laptops in case they get stolen (unless you don't have anything important on them).

Two tools I use to encrypt my laptop are:

TrueCrypt -- this excellent program encrypts sections of the hard drive or even the entire hard drive. If someone steals your laptop, they won't be able to access any of the data. It's free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Roboform -- this one encrypts passwords in your Web browser so that people can't log in to your hostel's accounts or webserver after stealing your laptop. I think this program costs $30 or $40 and you get a large discount on additional licenses after the first one.

Does anyone use those programs or know of others?

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Josh Hostels

14 years

Even if there are no laws, it's a good idea to take computer security seriously...

Hotel guests still most at risk for identity theft
http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2010/07/hotel-guests-still-at-most-risk-for-identity-theft/101525/1

Computer hackers continue to steal hotel guests' credit-card data more than any other industry - and there's little consumers can do to protect themselves...

Hackers growing more sophisticated

Part of the problem for hotels is that hackers have been creating more sophisticated software. The new breed of software can sit undetected inside a hotel's network for months until an expert looks specifically for it, he told me.

"Once installed on the hotel reservations system, (the hacker) is able to go through all the data on that system and pull out the credit card information," he said. "They can look not only at historic data on that system, but also the data being input at the same time."

Typically, hotel breaches are detected only after a credit card company notices a trend over time, he said. The credit card companies may see a pattern where credit cards are legitimately used at a particular hotel - and then fraud appears on those cards "some time after," Percoco told me.

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