Rule: Don’t store data on your C drive that you want saved.
Many people assume that the IT department will take care of their system back-ups. And yet many people still save important data on their local computer hard drives. What they don’t understand is that the IT department only backs up what is on your network drives. (These are the ones that are mapped to the funny middle letters of the alphabet and usually have your name or userid attached. H:/dline). Conversely, if you have any information that you don’t want to be the subject of the corporate archives – Funny poems, those obscene movies that your friend Jessie emails to you, a certain love-letter to your co-worker in the accounting department – don’t store it on the network drives. Knowing where and how data is stored and recovered is key to protecting it.
Real World: During the legal proceedings of the Enron litigation, thousands of data files were used as evidence. During and after the discovery process, many of these files were posted on the internet. Suddenly, the most personal email between former Enron employees and their friends and lovers was available for everyone to see.