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(ARA) – When Zoe Friend, a student at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, discovered her computer had crashed, she lost a term paper that was due in just a few days. Two months of work had vanished. She told her professor at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute what had happened, but his response was: “This is the new version of ‘the dog ate my homework.’ It’s your responsibility to back up your work.” Like most students, Friend had never thought about backing up data, so she had to live with a bad grade.
This experience convinced her father, David, to start Carbonite, now one of the leading online backup services in the world. Online backup may appeal to students who are especially interested in making sure that their music library and photos are safe, but it also ensures that their research and class assignments are protected.
Students should understand that taking steps to secure the information on their computer ought to be as automatic as buckling a seatbelt when they enter a car. They can further protect their files by choosing a strong password for access to their computers. Passwords should contain a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and should not reflect any personal information – such as versions of the student’s name, address or birth date. Passwords should be changed on a regular schedule to ensure that someone looking over a shoulder in the student union did not swipe a password as it was being entered.
Additionally, students should never download or share files unless they have installed antivirus software that scans each file to ensure it is safe. Sharing music and videos is a primary way that viruses are introduced to computers on campus.
Backing up can help you move forward……
Even in the worst situation – if a computer is stolen or viruses devour research projects — online backup can save the day. Files are encrypted on the computer and transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to a secure off-site data center where they remain encrypted and are safely stored. If something happens to their computer, students can easily retrieve all the files they need and even load them directly onto a new computer. Students can also access their backed up files from virtually any Internet-connected device as well as via smartphone apps.
The backup happens automatically, anytime a file is created or edited, without any user assistance required. The backed up files can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection and from most smartphones, including Android, iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
College students enter one of the most hazardous PC environments possible: a dorm room, where students are notoriously rough on their PCs, and many of these computers don’t last a full four years.
Parents pay a lot of money for those computers, and they also pay a lot for extended warranties for the hardware. For $59 a year, it’s easy to automatically back up computer work and get peace of mind. Parents can start a free trial at www.carbonite.com before their student goes off to college to ensure there will be no excuse for lost data.
Related articles
- Online Backup Review Service Offers Carbonite Coupon Offer Code for Savings (prweb.com)
- Carbonite Brings Computing Peace of Mind for Under $60 a Year (geardiary.com)
- SOS Online launches cloud backup for mobile devices, Facebook (infoworld.com)
