Bill,

What you say is absolutely correct.

The only issue is that the main risk here is not the problems caused by data
falling into the wrong hands; it is data being lost in the first place.

The fact is that the chances of extracting meaningful information from lost
tapes are slim irrespective of encryption.

To make anything of the data you would have to:

(1) Have an appropriate tape drive
(2) Establish how the data was backed up
(3) Establish the format of the data

This is all completely doable, but you would first require a motive, the
skills and have to establish that it was the best way of obtaining your
goal.

Your comments about perfection are also relative to the ways in which the
data is being lost.

I have been told that in the courier business (your common garden variety
courier) they see one errant delivery in every 20 as the benchmark.

A good offsite tape vendor should be looking at a target of no more than one
errant delivery in every 5000 deliveries.

Now, that one in every 5000 figure is for errant tapes, not lost tapes.

From my experience it is very rare to actually completely lose a tape
volume. This is what concerns me about the recent publicized "glitches" in
the industry; they have all been permanent losses.

I think you will find that if you scratch the surface these losses are part
of a larger problem that for some providers start in their own facilities.

I think if you asked most providers how many tapes they had in their
facilities they would not even know. They should be able to tell you down to
the tape. i.e. I have 1,003,001 tapes.

Gerard

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