Hard drives being stolen

[headcrab]

We have had two hard drives get stolen over the past three months. One right out of our control booth which we always keep locked, and one out of the basement within the past three days. These hard drives keep the backups of the school's music collection so we cannot afford to lose them. Now we will probably not have music at dances this coming year.
What is the best way to secure an external hard drive so it can't be stolen?

[MNicolai]

Chain it to something. They're small enough they could be put in a locking container. Are you certain though that it has been stolen?

Also, these days there isn't much excuse to not have backups or keep files secured. It's hard to believe if your control room remains locked that someone stole it. Sometimes it's easily confused with taking without asking but with intent to return. Otherwise if it does not turn up then you need to find the hole in your security and file a police report.


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[soundlight]

If they have Kensington slots, chain them to an anchor in the wall.

[NickJones]

I presume these are just standard HDDs, are they being stolen from in a draw or actually inside a PC?
Nick

[headcrab]

These are external USB hard drives. I left one sitting on the table in the control booth. On Monday it was gone. The other was on a table in the basement, a reasonably secure place in the building, as almost no one goes down there. It too vanished over the weekend.

[NickJones]

Could be anyone from cleaners to students, why not stick the HDD into a lockable draw, and just have the USB cable coming out, or have it locked up or even hidden every time you finnish using it, if it's sitting on a table it's easy for someone to swipe it, but stick it in a lockable draw and although it won't be 100% safe it gives you a much better chance, and maybe consider using open source encryption like TrueCrypt to render the drive useless to anyone but yourselves.
There must be somehwere in the theatre that is lockable, if not, hide it under a dimmer rack, in a fuse box, anywhere, and if you are scared you will forget where it was, buy a $30 electronic safe that can be bolted to somthing and secure it to the floor, hide the key and just tell all of the Tech people you trust the combiation.
Nick

[ruinexplorer]

I agree with Nick that your first defense is making sure that the hard drive is secure, even if it is in a locked/secure area. The first item to use is a small slot that is on most computer devices (which should show an emblem of a padlock next to it). Kensington is the preferred lock for this. Granted, they can easily be cut with a multi-tool, but there are some of the devices that also have an audible alarm on them. If you have sensitive files, I encourage you to use something like TrueCrypt that Nick suggests, but that won't stop someone from taking the device, and likely they will not return it. I encourage actually have the item in a locked place with just the power and USB cords coming out of the box. You shouldn't have any problems with ventilation, but if you do, you could also have it with an exhaust fan.

Even in many server rooms that I have been in, the sensitive racks are secured separately from the room. That way, if the door is accidentally left open, or if someone has access that shouldn't be messing with your stuff (janitorial staff perhaps), then your equipment is safe. As an asside, you should have hard copies of all of your files as well to ensure that you have your data should your drive fail (or get stolen).

[NickJones]

Originally Posted by ruinexplorer

Granted, they can easily be cut with a multi-tool, but there are some of the devices that also have an audible alarm on them.

As ruinexplorer said, it doesn't make it secure, if some one wants it they can get it, but it stops the people who see it left on a desk from swiping it. If it's a small USB powered HDD then chances are it wont have a security lock, but most desktop ones do.
Nick

[headcrab]

Making hard copies ie CD or DVD are impractical in this case because there were at least 40,000 files on that drive. That would be about 50 DVDs.
But depending on what IT says I will set up a relatively slow desktop in the control booth with an internal drive, anchor it to something, lock the case (razor wire?), and share the files over the LAN.

[NickJones]

Yeah, locking it up good idea, over LAN, probably not as smart, it will work but over LAN there is a LOT more that can go wrong, your best bet is simply to hide the disk. As for protecting a desktop, look into the electric fences they use for horse padocks.
Nick