One of my clients recently suffered an unfortunate loss, the fallout from which was mitigated by her having a very good disaster plan.
From my view as a tech person, what I saw was a textbook case of someone doing everything right.
My client knew and understood that she is always one crashed hard disk away from losing everything – in this case important documents, photographs, emails financial records and such. To ensure that a misfortune does not turn into an absolute catastrophe, a bit of preplanning is needed and this is exactly what this lady had already done. That is why when one night she was robbed of her laptop computer, tablet and smart phone she already had a road map to guide the way to start recovering her digital life.
An important part of a good disaster plan is using a password manager that backs up your login credentials online. Password management software makes it convenient to use passwords every day, but more important is the fact that unlike a bunch of yellow post-it notes on the bottom of the laptop that was just stolen, your passwords stored online in the password manager software are still available to you by using another computer. Your passwords are not lost.
What is good advice for password also goes for files. My client had made it a practice to perform regular backups of her computer, and, in addition to that, to make a second backup of important documents in “cloud storage” backup. Thanks to this excellent arrangement my client lost almost no irreplaceable data files.
I was able to offer my client the loan of another laptop, but it was old and only proved to be just enough of a life preserver to serve until the purchase and delivery of a new computer could be arranged. When the new computer arrived it took a few hours to restore programs and data files, after which things were almost back to normal.
Because of good planning my client was able to cope with a bad situation in the most efficient way I have ever witnessed in my professional career. The key elements to this planning are as follows:
One: Make backups of important data and store the backups offline so that those backups cannot be lost along with the computer. Scan copies of important documents such as passports and include these in your backup. Backups can be stored locally, in the cloud, or both.
Two: Use a password manager to record your usernames and passwords so that all your passwords are not stored on the computer that could be lost. Password managers also have places to record credit card numbers and that phone number found on the back of the card. That number is one you will need to have any time you phone your bank to report a credit card stolen.
Nobody wants to go through the trauma of being robbed. Being prepared with a clear disaster plan is the best way to carry on after the loss.
Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with more than 20 years IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted through his web site at SMAguru.com.