You’ll thank me for this… #1

You’ve decided to be awesome, your toolset is in place, your workplace is ergonomic and your productivity is up, nothing can stop you now. Can it?

Losing data is the number one fear for most information workers as they come to rely on their PC’s and mobile devices for almost everything they do. I propose you take 30 minutes to check out some of these options available to protect yourself and your data.

• Online Backups – consider backing up your data to an online service, it is a click and forget process to set up and ensure that you have continuous incremental backups running to a service like Carbonite or Mozy. I keep my essential work data in Live Mesh – which replicates it across machines, giving me the added benefit of being able to access it from any PC.
• Security software – make sure you have up to date and reliable security software (firewall, anti-virus, anti spam etc) – Symantec, McAfee are all available at a price – and new to the block is the free Microsoft Security Essentials – I’ve been using this on Beta for a while and it’s very reliable, lightweight and unobtrusive.
• Encryption – your data is important, right? Then consider encrypting your data on your drive (including portable), again you can pay for this, but there are free products closer than you think. I use BitLocker to encrypt my laptop and any USB drives that I use, its free and included in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

What else are you doing to make sure your data is secure and your work stays safe?