In today’s computing environment, businesses are relying on computers to perform daily business activities as well as mission critical functions. The use of computers in business is essential to maintain a competitive edge is almost any marketplace. As smaller companies begin to realize the benefits of computers for bookkeeping, customer databases, word processing, e-mail, scheduling, research and web sites, the need to have a backup copy of this data becomes more important. Research has shown that more than 80% of the businesses suffering from catastrophic data loss have gone out of business within 12 months. This is not hard to believe considering the extent computers are relied upon in businesses of all sizes.

The issue of data protection is not a new issue, but it has been more of a large corporate concern because many smaller businesses did not have the computing systems that were in use by larger corporations. Today, with the low cost of computers and the easy access to the Internet, businesses of all sizes have the ability to utilize computers for many important job functions. Small businesses rely on computers to automate and simplify tasks in order to reduce the costs of running a business. This makes any loss of data a significant business risk. With secure offsite storage capabilities offered by NovaNet-WEB a small business can automatically protect their data on a daily basis to ensure continuity.

ENCRYPTION
When proposing the benefits of off-site storage using the Internet as the communications medium, users may raise a concern about the security of their data. Whenever data privacy is an issue, some type of encryption needs to be employed to insure that the data can only be accessed by users with the correct access codes. Encryption allows a user to specify an access code or password which is used to make computer data unreadable to anyone without the correct password. There are hundreds of encryption algorithms available today, but a few stand out as industry leaders. The DES algorithm is a popular algorithm of the past that has been used by the U.S. Government as the standard encryption algorithm. Another popular algorithm is the Blowfish algorithm which allows a more powerful encryption and faster performance than DES. These encryption algorithms are currently available in NovaNet-WEB.

DES
Adopted in 1977, DES is based on a conventional or secret key system in which the sender and the receiver use a single key to encrypt and decrypt data. The sender uses the key to convert the data to scrambled format according to a complex mathematical algorithm, and only users with the correct key can successfully decrypt the data.

Having a key length of 64 bits, 56 are used as a key, while the remaining eight are used to check for errors. The DES algorithm will encrypt data in the same amount of space used by the original data. The user selects which one of more than 72 quadrillion transformation functions are to be used by selecting a 56-bit key. The theory behind the security of DES has been that, short of trying all 72 quadrillion combinations, there is no way to "break" the algorithm.

Triple DES
To increase the security of DES, some organizations use "triple DES" - or three operations of DES with two keys - to protect data. This method, however, requires more processing power which may affect performance.

Blowfish
Blowfish was designed in 1993 as a fast, free alternative to DES. Unlike DES, however, the Blowfish algorithm has a variable key length, which can be extended from 32 bits to 448 bits. Blowfish has been well received in the marketplace because is faster and more secure than DES.

THE NOVANET-WEB PROCESS
With NovaNet-WEB there are several places that encryption is used to ensure that the user’s data is secure.

• Communications
  Since the information is transmitted across the Internet, the communications between the user and the server should be encrypted to prevent a malicious person from intercepting data as it is transmitted over the Internet. As part of the initial connection procedure, the NovaNet-WEB client software negotiates a compatible set of encryption methods before sending any user information or data to the server. This ensures that all user communications during the entire backup and restore process are completely encrypted.
   
• Storage on Server
  When the encrypted backup data has be successful received by the server, it is immediately stored on the disk in the encrypted format and the filenames are further encrypted to make it more difficult for someone to identify the user data on the server. Data must be encrypted while stored on the server to prevent from an unauthorized user from accessing your data files and to protect the data in the event of the physical storage devices being obtained by an unauthorized third party.
   
• Storage on Client
  Important information such as the user’s password must be stored on the client computer in order to facilitate the logon process to the NovaNet-WEB server. This password and other important information is stored on the client system in an encrypted format that can only be read by the NovaNet-WEB application.
   
• User Authentication
  User authentication is performed immediately after the encrypted connection between the client and server has been made. The client software sends the username and password to the server to be validated against the Windows NT user database. This method of user authentication provides a robust and secure method for managing users. Using the Windows NT user database provide a standard secure database of users with the ability to quickly validate users against this database.

SUMMARY
With today’s encryption technology and the accessibility of the Internet smaller businesses can enjoy the level of data protection that was only afforded by large companies. Off-site storage of data provides a safe haven to protect small businesses from catastrophic data loss. The appropriate use of security measures, such as encryption, helps to ensure users that their data remains private throughout the entire NovaNet-WEB process.