Disaster Seminar 21 — Accounting Disaster Preparation

The accounting requirements are as follows:

1. Don’t use paper-less billing,
a. Loss of internet equals not receiving
your bill.
b. Multiple copies of bills means you
are more likely to get your bill even
in a disaster.

2. Make printed copies of all of your
Accounting activity.
a. In a dire emergency, you can do
accounting by hand.
b. (Paper) Weight of the evidence is
useful in a disagreement.

3. Make strong passwords.
a. If you can easily remember the
password, it isn’t strong enough.

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Disaster Seminar 20 — Long Term Backup Storage

When the backup folder has little less
than 4 giga-bytes:

1. Prepare two DVD’s from the backup folder

2. Store one of these DVD’s near the machine.

3. Store the other DVD at a remote location.

4. Clean up the backup folder.

5. Clean up the three flash drives.

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Disaster Seminar 19 — Daily Procedure

At the beginning of each day:

1. Make a new zip file in the backup
folder with a name containing the date.

Throughout the day:

1. At the completion of each task, store
the associated folder in the zip file.

At the end of the day:

1. Store the zip file in each of the
three flash drives.

2. Store the flash drives as follows:

a. Near the computer

b. In your pocket or purse.

c. In Your car.

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Disaster Seminar 18 — Required Backup Hardware/Software

Disaster-Hardened backup procedure requires:

1. 3 Flash Drives (5 gigabytes or more).

2. Blank DVD’s.

3. The capability of writing the DVD.
(Most modern machines have this capability)

4. A compressed zip file capability.
(Most modern machines have this capability)

5. A “backup” folder.

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Disaster Seminar 17 — Basic Disaster-Hardened Backup Requirements

The backup files must be:

1. Stored in multiple physical locations.

2. Directly accessible (no internet)

3. Current on a daily basis.

4. Organized to facilitate finding data.

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Disaster Seminar 16 — Backup Programs

I am using a great backup program.

1. It places my data on a portable hard drive.

2. It automatically backs up my machine.

3. It is easy to access my data.

This is not a great choice.

1. Your machine breaks, you may have to buy
a new backup program.

2. You need at least two copies of
your backup files at different locations.

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Disaster Seminar 15 — A Great Backup Service

I am already using a great backup service

1. My machine is automatically backed up over the internet

2. My data is cryptographically secure.

3. I have plenty of space available.

4. It is easy to get my data.

Wrong Choice!

1. Loss of internet means loss of service.

2. A disaster at the backup company site means loss of service.

3. NSA can break the crypto algorithm.

4. Company tech can probable access your data.

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Disaster Seminar 14 — I Already Backup My Data

Do I really need to have a flash drive copy
of my data directories?

It is very important to backup your data.

It can solve a great many problems.

Unfortunately, it is not a good means
of using your friend’s machine to perform
your critical tasks.

Let us develop some disaster related backup
methods.

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Disaster Seminar 13 — Current Data Solution

A Flash Drive will make your data available to another machine

1. All of the your data folders must be on the flash drive

2. Every time you work on your data, update the flash drive.

3. Keep the flash drive in your pocket.

Sounds like a lot of work!

It isn’t as much as you think.

Also, please keep in mind that not having your data
will create a lot more work.

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Disaster Seminar 12 — But I Like Quick Books

I also liked Quick Books.

1. I used it for many years.

2. It was quite easy to use.

3. It worked only on my Windows machine.

4. There was no Linux Version.

Then my machine broke.

1. My version did not work on my new machine.

2. I scrambled to find a solution

3. Open Office proved to be the solution

a. There was a version for both Windows and Linux

b. The downloads were free of charge.

c. The files are identical on both machines.

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