No More Lost Backup Tapes: Chain of Custody Security Measures

Sending critical backup tapes to a storage facility isn't as simple as placing a package on a truck. Here are four points to consider when you're securing the chain of custody for your backup data.

Drivers for the Custom Critical service (who are independent contractors) are bonded and have undergone basic background checks for citizenship and criminal history, according to the company. The service can also provide drivers who have security clearances from the federal government. The clearance process can include an investigation of a courier's place of birth, financial status and residency history, and even interviews with neighbors. But providing this type of high-level security can add hundreds of dollars to the courier fee, according to the Custom Critical service department. An interstate trip can increase ground transportation costs by thousands of dollars. Transporting the same cooler-size container from New York to Dallas via the same courier would cost about $5,300 each way, more than twice the cost of two nonstop airfare tickets.

Bank of America used a third-party courier on a commercial airline to transport the backup tapes that were misplaced, according to Barbara Desoer, the bank's head of technology and service, who testified at a Senate Banking Committee hearing in March.

That practice is dangerous, says Pupillo of the Secret Service. "I would not consider sending [tapes] like baggage," he says. "Think about getting on an airplane and handing them your baggage. Then on the other end, even if it's a direct flight, you get your suitcase off and it's dented, scratched, or sometimes it's not there."

Desoer told the Senate hearing that Bank of America has stopped using airline couriers and is now sending tapes via ground transportation to a new (and unspecified) location.

UPS offers special handling for packages that customers identify as requiring a high level of security. For some companies, the very anonymity of a package is a type of security, says Black of UPS: "An item will be part of 14.1 million deliveries every day."

Even when these precautions are taken, handing off valuable data to unauthenticated couriers remains a weak point in the security chain, says Carl Herberger, senior director of information security professional services at business continuity vendor SunGard. Couriers must show a driver's license when dropping off or picking up tapes. "But then we can argue whether a driver's license is a strong form of identification today," given the explosion of fraudulent IDs, he adds.

Like FedEx, UPS performs basic background checks on its drivers to verify citizenship and the absence of a criminal record.

Use a courier and encrypt backup data

Strategy no. 2

In May, just days before Time Warner announced its security breach of lost tapes, Iron Mountain issued a press release advising companies to encrypt backup data before it gets into an outsider's hands, such as itself. "Even Iron Mountain is not immune from human error," Chairman and CEO Richard Reese said in the statement. (The company declined interview requests.)