Data - The New Valuable

This week on the eSafes blog, we’re looking at data safes for homes and businesses, because while cash and jewellery remain the real valuables in the public perception, there’s every reason why the data on your laptop or other home computers should be thought of as being just as important.

The big question to ask yourself is what would you do if you lost your data? Another question is what could someone else do if your data fell into their hands?

In commercial terms, many businesses rely upon their data more than anything else. From their own financial details to the sensitive information of their customers or clients, modern businesses are built on information. More often than not this information is stored electronically. That’s why a wide range of solutions are available to make sure this information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. But that is not the biggest threat to data anyway.

Take a look around the eSafes store today and you’ll see that most of the biggest security brands manufacture fireproof safes, file cabinets and fire chests. These fireproof safes and data safes are specifically tested to withstand the damaging effects of fire and intense heat.

In typical office environments or other workspaces a fire rating of 2 hours or more is recommended, designed to provide sufficient time for a fire to be dealt with before damage is done to the most important commodity in the room: the data. After all, chairs, desks and other items can be replaced. The question you have to ask yourself is whether your data could be replaced too.

Many of the most popular home safes also offer some degree of fire resistance. Most security industry types will tell homeowners that 30 mins to 1 hour should be a suitable degree of fire resistance. When it comes to data that we store at home a big factor is identity theft. Our homes are a goldmine of sensitive information and as our banking and bill payments becomes more and more digitised, our laptops and hard drives become home to just as much of a factor.

The loss of data could ultimately prove far more costly than the loss of some cash or jewellery. The big question is how much do you stand to use, and how much could you benefit from a brand new safe.