| Data security is the means of ensuring that data is | | | | capacity, and activities such as podslurping are |
| kept safe from corruption and that access to it is | | | | becoming more and more common. It is now possible |
| suitably controlled. Thus data security helps to ensure | | | | to store 40 GB of data on a device that will fit in an |
| privacy. It also helps in protecting personal data. | | | | employees pocket, data that could contribute to the |
| In the UK, the Data Protection Act is used to ensure | | | | downfall of a business. |
| that personal data is accessible to those whom it | | | | Data corruption refers to errors in computer data that |
| concerns, and provides redress to individuals if there | | | | occur during transmission or retrieval, introducing |
| are inaccuracies. This is particularly important to ensure | | | | unintended changes to the original data. Computer |
| individuals are treated fairly, for example for credit | | | | storage and transmission systems use a number of |
| checking purposes. The Data Protection Act states | | | | measures to provide data integrity, the lack of errors. |
| that only individuals and companies with legitimate and | | | | Data corruption during transmission has a variety of |
| lawful reasons can process personal information and | | | | causes. Interruption of data transmission causes |
| cannot be shared. | | | | information loss. Environmental conditions can interfere |
| The International Standard ISO/IEC 17799 covers data | | | | with data transmission, especially when dealing with |
| security under the topic of information security, and | | | | wireless transmission methods. Heavy clouds can |
| one of its cardinal principle is that all stored information, | | | | block satellite transmissions. Wireless networks are |
| i.e. data, should be owned so that it is clear whose | | | | susceptible to interference from devices such as |
| responsibility it is to protect and control access to that | | | | microwave ovens. |
| data. | | | | Data loss during storage has two broad causes: |
| Data theft is a growing problem primarily perpetrated | | | | hardware and software failure. Head crashes and |
| by office workers with access to technology such as | | | | general wear and tear of media fall into the former |
| desktop computers and hand-held devices, since | | | | category, while software failure typically occurs due to |
| employees often spend a considerable amount of time | | | | bugs in the code. |
| developing contacts and confidential and copyrighted | | | | When data corruption behaves as a Poisson process, |
| information for the company they work for they often | | | | where each bit of data has an independently low |
| feel they have some right to the information and are | | | | probability of being changed, data corruption can |
| inclined to copy and/or delete part of it when they | | | | generally be detected by the use of checksums, and |
| leave the company, or misuse it while they are still in | | | | can often be corrected by the use of error correcting |
| employment. | | | | codes. |
| While most organizations have implemented firewalls | | | | If an uncorrectable data corruption is detected, |
| and intrusion-detection systems very few take into | | | | procedures such as automatic retransmission or |
| account the threat from the average employee that | | | | restoration from backups can be applied. RAID disk |
| copies proprietary data for personal gain or use by | | | | arrays, store and evaluate parity bits for data across a |
| another company.[citation needed] A common | | | | set of hard disks and can reconstruct corrupted data |
| scenario is where a sales person makes a copy of | | | | upon of the failure of a single disk. |
| the contact database for use in their next job. Typically | | | | If appropriate mechanisms are employed to detect |
| this is a clear violation of their terms of employment. | | | | and remedy data corruption, data integrity can be |
| The damage caused by data theft can be | | | | maintained. This is particularly important in banking, |
| considerable with today's ability to transmit very large | | | | where an undetected error can drastically affect an |
| files via e-mail, web pages, USB devices, DVD storage | | | | account balance, and in the use of encrypted or |
| and other hand-held devices. Removable media | | | | compressed data, where a small error can make an |
| devices are getting smaller with increased hard drive | | | | extensive dataset unusable. |