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]

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

 

[headcrab]

What's wrong with the LAN? I found a way to password-protect network shares. I can lock the case or bolt it to the studs.

 

[NickJones]

Depending on your OS, and network speed, networks can go down easily, try pulling up "My Netork Places" on your school network, chances are it will freeze and possibly crash if you use Windows. It's just genraly a bad idea. As when you think about what can go wrong on a network, you have:

• Hard Drive
• Server
• Network Hub
• Laptop

That's a lot more than:

• Hard Drive
• Laptop

I just feel its an un-necessary risk, as long as you make sure the hard drive goes back where it belongs, then it will be fine.

Nick

 

[rcopley]

It can always be frustrating to have equipment lost or stolen, whether it be the key to the light board (been there done that, but that's a different post) or a hard drive. I would treat the data on the drives as you would any other critical data (take for instance how a lot of light boards will allow you to backup cues and important settings to an external medium). I would recommend a combination of data backups (such as to a NAS, or if your venue has one, a data storage server), I would also try to keep the physical drives secure or at least hide them (protect them like a stage hand protects his gaffers tape). If your drive has a lock port (and most do) a laptop lock would be an inexpensive way to protect them.

One word of advice though, if you do keep your music library on a server, you'll want to pull the specific songs that you plan on using for a show on to the local computer or a disc (believe me, it protects you from some embarrassing "cannot connect to network drive" moments)

 

[NickJones]

One word of advice though, if you do keep your music library on a server, you'll want to pull the specific songs that you plan on using for a show on to the local computer or a disc (believe me, it protects you from some embarrassing "cannot connect to network drive" moments)

Very good advice, was doing a show a few weeks ago where the audio was run from a laptop running Windows, and halfway though the show you hear the "Biding" from un-plugging a USB.

 

[IndigoFire]

Just today i heard the telltale windows "click" sound from opening a file during a rehearsal.
As for running the music from a network, unless you some serious security stopping other users from accessing it, you'll have DRM lawyers all over you in no time. Not to mention the thousands of potential problems it opens you up to.

 

[NickJones]

Not just the matter of network security, even if its a closed newtork, you still have twice the amount of stuff that can fail. Two computers, and a switch/cat5/6.

Also, some laptops buzz badly, iPods can be good if you are on a shoe string budget (and own an iPod), while going through a fellow CB member's iPod I found lots of High School Musical songs on there, he said it was on there from the show, but we did it 3 years ago. And the iPod is relitively new. Go figure.
Nick

 

[ruinexplorer]

As for the other computer sounds, I'm sure there is discussion on the sound forum for that. As a side note, I never recommend using a computer for a show unless it is built for that purpose. Certainly, if it is your computer, you can modify it however you choose, but if it is not your machine, then make sure that you have permission to adjust it. Things that I recommend adjusting are all service audibles (that click or ping that windows will make when selecting something) as well as screen savers and power saving features. There's nothing like doing a presentation when the screen suddenly switches to a screen saver, and I've heard horror stories about some peoples screen savers as well, but that's another thread.

As for backing up files, I understand that hard drives are becoming immense in size and standard methods of backup can seem daunting (50 dvds = 235gb uncompressed) and may not be ideal. Network backup is common and is ideal in this type of situation. As for the DRM lawyers, I don't think that is an issue. If the school has the information on a closed network, then it's not much different than having a library. Anyone can go to the library and access that music against the normal protocols of distribution (you are not supposed to check out a CD and rip it to your hard drive).

I agree that having the information for show purposes on a local hard drive is the best. When I worked corporate AV, as long as the client would allow, I would put all of their presentations and material directly on my hard drive instead of running it from CD or memory stick. It just works better, especially when it is cue time dependant.

 

[gafftaper]

To me this is a much bigger problem than you are thinking about. If someone could steel the hard drive they could also take the computer, the sound board, the light board... anything. I would take a serious look at the larger security issue. Get the area re-keyed it won't cost more than about $100. Have it keyed to something that isn't on any master key. (Assuming this is a school) Give a key to the teacher in charge of the theater, the head day and night custodians, and one administrator. Loosing a hard drive is one thing. Losing components of your main system... that's an entirely different issue and something that is apparently possible. If they stole a hard drive what's to stop them from coming back for something more valuable? Security is critical in schools because there's often no way you'll ever get your gear replaced if it's stolen.

 

[NickJones]

And if you loose your light board who knows what horror consoles you could be given, a Leviton Innovator (Shudder) or the Beringer LC2412, that we heard about a few weeks ago. Make sure it's safe!
Nick

 

[headcrab]

What is the best way to secure the components of the main system other than rekeying?