I have this great idea... I'll put a radio transmitter in amongst a whole bunch of magnetic storage media, ensure that the transmitter sends it's location very regularly. This has the advantage that should the storage media go missing, it'll be completely worthless having been bulk erased by said transmitter. Just don't tell the boss that it will also make the all important off site backup completely worthless too.

Are there actually people out there that haven't had a floppy disk next to a mobile phone?

What are the chances that the tape transport involved actually involves putting the tapes in a safe/metal box, inside a metal truck, so GPS signal will be extremely weak and this device has to send a message at full power saying "I don't know where I am"

Some things need a bit more thought I think.

I bet it was designed on a mac.

So does that mean that if the driver is forced to take a detour off the "official" route, that warnings will be sent and Fuji will send ninjas out to ensure everything is OK?

Doesn't seem to do much against malicious theft either. All you'd have to do is open up a tape cartridge and remove the tape you wanted, and throw that out the window. This only works if the entire load falls off, or so it seems to me.

And if you pop the tape into a foil bag or metal case... ? Sure, you know it's gone but... ?

Damn modern thieves and their high-tech cloaking devices.

Hello, I'm from the British Goverenment... can I order tons of these for our IT stuff? We seem to keep "losing" things.

Just throwing this out there... for consideration...

Encryption.

Why is is so hard for these places to encrypt their precious data! I really don't get it. Sure it might be nice to know where your data is, but AES-256 can't be blocked by a Faraday cage.

I call shenanigans on your cell phone versus floppy scenario. Not just because it sounds like a bad 80's serial plot line, but because I have done just such.

The transmitter in the tape would have to be pretty strong to affect the contents of the tape. All it has to do is communicate via WiFi or 3G, neither of which when placed next to a DLT has ever damage the tape beyond readability, let alone erased it. Irrespective of signal strength, the higher frequencies used by communications radios would mostly, if not completely, be ignored by the magnetic media.

And since it's initially a passive device -- it only phones home when it strays off-route -- the likelihood of said bulk erase would be even more minimized.

I do, however, think that a better security scenario would be to have the capability to simply wipe the device should it stray from its programmed GPS route, or cannot detect a GPS signal for more than a defined period of time. Other tapes destroyed in this process would be collateral damage, as you simply must err on the side of caution.

And I certainly agree about encryption. The tape should be encrypted and have the ability to self-destruct.

But why don't more people use encryption? Because you would need the drive itself to encrypt the data, as NTBackup.exe does not, as of yet. There are backup software solutions that encrypt, but pointy-haired bosses don't like them because it takes away from the coffee fund.

Paris, for self-destructing when going off-route.

Using GPS receivers inside a tape cartridge/box...

Works OK until someone throws it into the back of an old van to take it to the offsite storage.

There's a good reason why in-car GPS needs to either be mounted on the dash, or have an external antenna...

The ONLY WAY to keep the data safe is by PROPER ROUTINES!

Many tapes now have bar-codes or even RFID on them.

Make certain that EVERY TAPE removed from the room with the tape drives is tagged and SIGNED FOR. (On this point, he may have to assign codes for 'scrapped', 'off-site' or whatever. If 'off-site' is selected, a shipping manifest is generated)

Then, the driver of the van also scans them, and if the list matches up with earlier manifest, signs it.

At arrival on the off-site storage, every tape is also scanned and signed for.

This way, if a tape 'goes missing' at any point, it will show up immediately.

Not that it should matter, as every bl**dy tape should always be encrypted!

That not secure enough?

Then transport tapes in special cases which will destroy the contents if opened without the proper authorization or if it has been 'on the road' for too long.

Can't be that difficult to make one...

err... did I not see this in the movie Blue Thunder, dead easy to foil just remove the tape from the eraser!

Helicopter cause I did mention Blue Thunder

encrypt the data

barcode/RFID the tapes

sealed box with tracking

one and only one person who is fully responsible for seeing that data is properly tracked when leaving, same on receiving.

In addition to the aforementioned points, if the data is all that sensitive: DON'T SHIP IT VIA POST. Mail gets lost all the time, hire a specialized shipping company to do it, it may cost more, but it's alot more likely to get to it's target destination. But unfortunately, due to the fact most organizations where data is most sensitive being so penny-pinching, this scenario is unlikely to ever happen in The Real World.

"I do, however, think that a better security scenario would be to have the capability to simply wipe the device should it stray from its programmed GPS route, or cannot detect a GPS signal for more than a defined period of time."

You are the screenwriter for Blue Thunder and I calim my $5