1. Introduction

You might think that the most valuable item that you or a company own are the desktops and laptops. Well, think again - the thing that is worth the most is the data held on those computers.

Surprising eh?

Well, if a computer breaks down or gets stolen then you can go out and buy a new one. But, how would you feel if you lost three months of coursework? How would a company manage if they lost all of their customer lists, their financial data and everything else they store on computers? The company would probably be crippled in the short term and go out of business pretty soon afterwards.

The worrying thing, is that even though we know how valuable our data is, we often don't take enough steps to protect it.

Over the next few pages we will be looking in a little more depth at what both you and any business should be doing to keep their data safe.