I cannot say that mainframe encryption software is NEVER wrong, but I can say that I have been using various mainframe encryption processes for 30 years (and a few days) and I have 'lost' data 5 times. I could not remember the encryption key those 5 times. I still have those files and once in a while try to decrypt them again when I get some glimmer of what the key might have been. I had to recreate the data for those 5 files so no data was irrevocably lost.
The single point of weakness in my working from home is the 2-Factor-Authentication token I am required to use. If I were to leave that in the office or lose it in the supermarket (buying bread, milk, toiletpaper before the blizzard strikes), I would not be able to make the required VPN connection. Driving on icy roads full of idiots is not one of the sacrifices I will make for the greater glory of ... /Tom Kern On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:49:07 -0600, Hal Merritt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >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. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
