The decentralization of computing has resulted in significant increases in productivity among computer users on campus. However, as Penn's computing environment becomes more distributed, responsibility for the integrity of institutional data that may reside on personal computers or workstations becomes distributed as well. Several potential threats exist, which can result in the corruption or loss of data. Hardware failure, such as a disk crash or damage to a floppy disk, can leave data useless. Users can unintentionally delete or replace important files.
Computer viruses can destroy data on hard disks or floppy diskettes.
In order to ensure the integrity of distributed data residing on personal computers or workstations, individual computer users must assume primary responsibility for taking adequate precautions against loss of data. Regular backups should be maintained for all critical data. In the case of floppy-disks, a duplicate copy of all disks should be maintained. In the case of hard disks, a backup copy should be maintained on diskettes, on tape, or on a remote server. While users are encouraged to make incremental backups on a daily basis, backups should be performed at least once weekly.