There I was, looking into the teeth of a serious ice storm, any my company laptop dies. I have a generator and satellite telecom so that part was covered. But the laptop was a single point of failure between me working from home or risking life and limb having to go out in the storm. The prospect of driving over roads covered with ice and idiots gives me gas.
The failure was in the encryption software. The techs tell me the encryption software has been almost trouble free. Almost. And failures are rare. But they happen. When there is a failure, they can almost always recover the data. Almost. I don't have any numbers, but my sense is that only one of a hundred laptops have suffered data loss. One percent. Now, laptops pose an extraordinary level of risk and some hard nosed encryption is arguably mandatory. That is not the point of this rant. Is it possible that mainframe encryption can guarantee perfection? Or will we see about the same thing: loss of one percent of the most mission critical data in the shop? Or one in a hundred critical datasets? Is the mitigated risk worth the loss? Gives this old sysprog pause. NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message, together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
