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Risk Management

When a computer was stolen

By Nick Tang
August 15th, 2024 @ 1:22 PM GMT+8
A manager reached out to us for urgent assistance early last month after her laptop was stolen during a car break-in. She made a police report and sent her car for repairs, but her primary concern was the million-dollar proposal she had spent countless nights working on, the only copy she stored on her computer.
While we cannot totally prevent an incident like this, we can lessen its’ business impact. Being the IT department for her company, we immediately executed the defined disaster and recovery steps:

1. Data Encryption

The value of the data on her computer far exceeded the cost of the device itself, bearing in mind the possibility of the valuable information and data being sold to their competitors. To overcome this, we encrypted the hard drive using BitLocker, a powerful hard drive encryption tool from Microsoft. The security feature ensured that even if the computer was in the wrong hands, the data on the hard drive remains inaccessible.
Bitlocker
Bitlocker

2. Real-time Data Backup

Her computer gets backed-up in real-time using Microsoft OneDrive, a cloud solution from Microsoft. When the computer is online, any type of file and documents created or saved on Desktop and Document folders gets backed-up to the Cloud automatically.
Microsoft OneDrive

3. Recovery on a Standby Computer

While the procurement process for a new laptop may take some time, we restored her settings, including her email, server access, and documents, on a standby computer the following day. This enabled her to resume work quickly, even before her new laptop arrives.
A standby computer is invaluable when an incident occurs with your laptop.
She received her new computer last week. Our helpdesk team transferred all her documents and settings from the standby computer to the new one, incorporating all the above protection.
We are pleased to share that she successfully pitched her proposal to her buyer. Congratulations and commendation on her successful presentation.