Variety of disasters, was: Web hosting for ...

[Bob Bayn <Bob.Bayn () USU EDU>]

Mike Fox, at Georgia Southern, wrote in part:

> We are on the east coast and we are susceptible to Hurricane and
> tornadoes so we are looking for a site that is not as susceptible
> to disasters (I know everybody has their own set of disasters to
> deal with), like out in Utah :).

It is small comfort to us at Utah State University that the UofU
Health Services was hit with their recent courier disaster.  Most
of my friends at UofU IT Security are shaking their heads but not
really in the line of fire.  But UofU Health Services is the only
major medical facility in the region so many of us at neighboring
institutions are personally among the 2.2 million exposed records.
Even if the thief of the lockbox was just looking for some cash or
a quick pawn for drugs, the publicity has surely alerted him to
take his prize to someone who will pay to make use of the PII.  He
may learn to quit looking for unsecured cash and high end luxury
items and start focusing on unsecured repositories of PII for his
next drug fix.

In spite of that, we know that exposure of our PII is nothing
compared to the real personal safety risks associated with many
of the real disasters going on around the country and world these
days. We are still safe, warm and dry with uncontaminated water;
our communication, transportation and commerce systems intact.

--
Bob Bayn  ride-a-bike (435)797-2396
Network Security Team coordinator
Office of Information Techology
Utah State University