It sounds like a good idea to provide some extra security for your backup data by storing the media in a locked safe. It is certainly better than storing the media in an unlocked drawer or on a shelf somewhere. But, if a thief simply takes the whole safe, as happened to Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids in Michigan, the data is not really protected any more.

While it seems fair to assume that the thief expected to find money inside, the safe actually contained names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers from thousands of Goodwill workers. Since the thief took the whole safe, it also seems fair to assume he or she had a plan for how to open it and extract its contents.

After that, it gets a little more difficult to speculate. According to Jill Wallace, VP of Community Relations for Goodwill, the official stance seems to be based on an assumption that the thief is simply too dumb to know what a backup tape is or how to find out what is stored on it. “Basically it would be impossible for an individual to even know what to do with that data or even how to open it up.”

I’ve worked with backup tapes. While they may not be your standard audio cassette tape, it is obvious that it is a tape. Contrary to Wallace’s sentiment that the data must be safe because the thief would be too clueless to use it, I think its reasonable to believe that the thief *would* know that its a data tape, and–especially after the disappointment of realizing there is no money in the safe–the thief would do everything possible to determine what *is* on the tapes and try to make lemonade from lemons by capitalizing on the data they contain.

According to the article from the Grand Rapids News Channel 3 Web site, “Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids thought that personal data would be more secure if those tapes were not in a corporate office, but inside one of its stores. The organization has decided not to do that anymore.”

I think Goodwill missed the point and learned the wrong lesson. The location of the safe is not the problem–thieves are just as likely to break into the Goodwill corporate office and take the safe. The issue is that the data stored on the backup tapes–or any other media you might store your backup data on–should be encrypted so that the data is protected even if the storage container is breached.