Why Online Backup is Important

On June 10 the Associated Press reported that 2.2 million people’s billing records were stolen from a courier’s vehicle at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics.  The records held information including Social Security numbers of 1.3 million people over the past 16 years.  The courier picked up the records at the university but instead of “taking them to a storage center” he left them in his car while he was at his second job, and that was when they were stolen. 

Needless to say he was fired.  The police suspect that the thief thought the box of records was money.  The hospital usually just sends “backup information to a secure…vault to prevent the complete loss of records in case of fire or earthquake”.  So if the hospital just had the records backed up online, than this would not have happened.