Looking after the computer data

Transcription

1 2 Lookig after the computer data this chapter covers... Before lookig i detail at the settig up of a computer accoutig system it is importat to establish the priciples of good housekeepig for computers. I other words, kowig how to look after the computer software ad avoid losig the data held o it. The issues we will look at i this chapter iclude: - the use of passwords ad access rights to the computer accoutig system - loggig oto the computer ad dealig with dates - savig ad backig up data - restorig data i Sage - software problems C O M P U T E R C A R E A orgaisatio that uses computers will have ivested thousads of pouds i buyig equipmet ad i traiig staff to operate it. A busiess that fails to look after the data that it holds is potetially throwig this moey dow the drai. What are the dagers to the data? I this chapter we look at the importace of protectig the data from viruses, hackers ad uauthorised access from employees. U S I N G PA S S W O R D S Before gettig goig o the computer you are likely to have to use passwords to eable you to gai access to: the computer itself, for example if you are usig a workstatio o a etwork this is a system password

2 l o o k i g a f t e r t h e c o m p u t e r d a t a 1 5 particular computer programs, some of which may eable you to access sesitive or cofidetial iformatio eg the accoutig software this is a software password We will deal with the security aspect of passwords later i this chapter. We will cocetrate here o the practical aspects of passwords as part of the startig up procedure. s y s t e m p a s s w o r d s l o g g i g o If you are workig o a etwork you have to log o as a user before you ca use a computer workstatio. You may have to give a user ame ad also a uique password. The user ame will ormally show o the scree as you iput it, but the password will show as a series of dots or asterisks. The example below shows someoe loggig oto a computer i the productio departmet. loggig oto the system s o f t w a r e p a s s w o r d s a c c e s s i g a p r o g r a m Passwords are also eeded to protect sesitive ad cofidetial data held o the computer system. This is particularly importat i the areas of staff records ad also i the case of fiacial data processed by computer accoutig programs. Oe solutio to the problem of uauthorised employees gaiig access to sesitive fiacial data is the use of passwords to gai access to the computer program. May larger busiesses will employ a umber of people who eed to operate the computer accoutig system; they will be issued with a appropriate password. Busiesses ca also set up access rights which restrict certai employees to certai activities ad prevet them from accessig more sesitive areas such as the makig of paymets from the bak accout. Whe a employee comes to operate, for example, a Sage computer accoutig package, he or she will be asked to log o. I the example from Sage 50 show o the ext page a perso called Tom eters his log o ame ad a password (COBBLY).

3 1 6 c o m p u t e r a c c o u t i g s y s t e m s t u t o r i a l L O G G I N G O N A N D D E A L I N G W I T H D AT E S t h e d i f f e r e t d a t e s Oe potetial problem area for the operator of a computer accoutig system is the use of dates whe iputtig. There are a umber of dates that eed to be bore i mid: the actual date most people ca maage this cocept the system date this is the date that the computer thiks is the actual date the computer is ormally right the program date the date which you ca istruct the accoutig software to use as the actual date the fiacial year start date the moth i which the fiacial year of the busiess starts l o g g i g o a d u s i g d a t e s Whe you log o ad start usig the computer accoutig software, you should check that the date show at the bottom of the scree is the date you wat to use for your iput. The date show here will be allocated to ay trasactios that you iput ito the computer. Normally this is the system date (the date the computer thiks it is). You should the ask yourself if you wat your trasactios to be allocated ay other date. This might be the case if... you are iputtig a batch of trasactios which wet through last week for example a umber of cheques received from customers ad you wat the trasactios to show o the records as goig through last week you are i a traiig situatio ad you have bee give a specific date for iput

4 l o o k i g a f t e r t h e c o m p u t e r d a t a 1 7 If you are usig Sage software i these cases you should chage the program date through the SETTINGS meu. The program date lets you set ay date to be today s date. This ew date will appear agaist every trasactio you make that day ad will remai i force util you exit from the program, after which it reverts to the system (actual) date. f i a c i a l y e a r A busiess will use a fiacial year for accoutig purposes. The fiacial year, like the caledar year, may ru from Jauary through to December. But the fiacial year ca start aytime durig the year; some busiesses ed their fiacial year o 31 March or 30 Jue, for example. Whe settig up the data i a computer accoutig program you have to state whe the fiacial year starts. I Sage this is doe from the SETTINGS meu: The fiacial year is importat for the maagemet of the busiess. The edof-year routies ru o the computer provide the data from which the edof-year fiacial statemets ad maagemet reports ca be produced.

5 1 8 c o m p u t e r a c c o u t i g s y s t e m s t u t o r i a l S AV I N G A N D B A C K - U P The computer accoutig program you are usig will tell you whe to Save your work. This is ormally doe after iputtig a group of trasactios ad before passig o to the ext task. b a c k i g - u p f i l e s You will also eed to back-up the data geerated by the computer. There is o set rule about whe you should do this, but it should be at least at the ed of every day ad preferably whe you have completed a log ru of iputtig. b a c k - u p m e d i a If you are workig o a etwork, you ca ormally save to your files, to your work statio s hard disk ad also to the server. If you have a stadaloe computer system, the back-up files should be saved to some form of storage device. This may take the form of a disk drive i the workstatio itself or it may be a exteral drive. Data ca be backed up oto a variety of media: writable or rewritable CDs (cheap ad disposable) tape drive portable hard disk drive writable or rewritable DVDs USB memory stick Aother back-up optio is to sed files by ad keep them secure at a remote locatio, although this optio might be limited by file size. b a c k - u p i S a g e Back-up i Sage is carried out from the FILE meu, or o the prompt whe you close dow. The scree gives you a choice of file ame (by default the date) ad asks to which drive you wat the data saved. I the Sage scree show at the top of the ext page it is a exteral USB drive.

6 l o o k i g a f t e r t h e c o m p u t e r d a t a 1 9 If you are usig Sage you are recommeded to ru the ERROR CHECKING routie from MAINTENANCE (from the FILE meu) before backig up. This will check the data files ad esure that you do ot back-up ay corrupted data. The scree after a check looks like this: b a c k - u p p o l i c y It is importat that a orgaisatio works out a systematic policy for backup of its data. This should ivolve: more tha oe back-up held at ay oe time back-up media held off the premises periodic back-up (eg back-ups at the ed of each moth) stored securely

7 2 0 c o m p u t e r a c c o u t i g s y s t e m s t u t o r i a l Oe solutio is for the busiess to keep a set of back-up media (eg tapes) for each workig day, labelled with the ame of the day. At the ed of each workig day the data is backed up o the appropriate back-up media, which are kept securely o site, preferably uder lock ad key. As a further security measure, a secod set of back-ups could be kept as a off-site security back-up. These would be backed up at the ed of each day ad take off-site by a employee. With this system i place the busiess has double security for its valuable data. It should also be metioed that the back-up media should be replaced periodically (every three moths, for example) as they wear out i time ad the data ca become corrupted. r e s t o r i g d a t a f r o m a b a c k - u p I the ufortuate evet that the accoutig data o your computer has bee lost or corrupted, you ca restore the data from a earlier date from the appropriate back-up media. This is carried out i Sage from RESTORE i the FILE meu. Note that all the data is restored i this process; it is ot possible to restore selected files. You should the ru ERROR CHECKING routie from FILE MAINTENANCE to make sure the restored data is ot corrupted.

8 l o o k i g a f t e r t h e c o m p u t e r d a t a 2 1 S O F T WA R E P R O B L E M S Software problems ca occur. If it is a case of ot kowig how to carry out a particular operatio, refer the matter to someoe who does. Help is always at had through HELP meus, o-lie support or telephoe techical support to which the busiess is likely to have subscribed. If a program crashes, it may be ecessary to restart the computer. If the program refuses to work after repeated attempts, it may have become corrupted, i which case it may eed to be re-istalled. c o r r u p t e d, d e l e t e d o r o v e r w r i t t e d a t a f i l e s Problems ca also be caused if a data file becomes corrupt, ie it becomes uusable ad will ot ope or prit, or both gets deleted by accidet or by a malicious computer virus is accidetally overwritte by a older versio of a file, ad i the process wipes out the work you may have doe o the file I these cases you have to rely o beig able to restore your back-up files. v i r u s p r o t e c t i o Computers are vulerable to viruses. A virus is a destructive program which ca be itroduced ito the computer either from a disk, USB memory stick, a iteret dowload, attachmet or from aother computer. Some viruses are relatively harmless ad may merely display messages o the scree, others ca be very damagig ad destroy operatig systems ad data, puttig the computer system completely out of actio. Most computers are ow sold already istalled with virus protectio software which will: establish a firewall to repel viruses check for existig viruses destroy kow viruses check for damage to files o the hard disk repair damage to files o the hard disk where possible This software should be ru ad updated regularly so that it ca deal with the latest viruses.

9 2 2 c o m p u t e r a c c o u t i g s y s t e m s t u t o r i a l p r e c a u t i o s a g a i s t v i r u s e s There are a umber of precautios which you ca take agaist viruses: be wary of opeig ay uidetified attachmets which arrive use protective software to ispect ay disk or memory stick received from a outside source before opeig up ay file saved oto it make sure that your protective software is up to date very ofte they will update automatically over the iteret If your protective software aouces that you have a virus, you should report it at oce i your workplace ad stop usig your computer. Chapter Summary A busiess which has ivested i a computer accoutig system eeds to esure that the data held o it is well maitaied. Passwords ad access rights ca be set up o the computer system to restrict access to authorised employees. A umber of differet dates are ivolved whe loggig oto the system: system dates, program dates ad fiacial year dates. Data should be backed up regularly ad a back-up routie established. I the case of data loss, data ca be restored from the back-up media. Whe operatig a computer system it is importat to kow what to do whe thigs go wrog, eg software failure ad loss of data. Accoutig data ca be protected with virus protectio software. Key Terms system password software password access rights system date a code word used to allow a employee to log o to access the computer accoutig system a code word used to allow a employee to log o to access a particular computer accoutig program, such as Sage 50 the right of a employee to access specified areas of the computer accoutig program the date allocated by the operatig system of the computer ormally the actual date

10 l o o k i g a f t e r t h e c o m p u t e r d a t a 2 3 program date fiacial year back-up restore corrupt data virus the date which you ca tell the computer accoutig software to use as today s date the twelve moth period used by the busiess to record its fiacial trasactios to copy the computer data oto a separate storage medium i order to esure that the data is ot lost to copy the back-up data back oto the computer whe the origial data has bee lost or corrupted data which has become uusable a computer program itroduced ito the computer system which the disrupts or destroys the operatio of the system Activities 2.1 Explai how passwords ad access rights to accoutig software help protect computer data. 2.2 Explai the differece betwee a system date ad a program date used o a computer accoutig program such as Sage. 2.3 Write dow a suggested back-up policy for a office which rus a computer accoutig system. 2.4 You are ruig a check o your computer accoutig data at the ed of the day before carryig out the back-up routie. The message appears o scree that a umber of your data files have become corrupted. You ormally back-up your data daily at the ed of the day. Explai what you would do to rescue your data ad brig the computer accoutig records up to date. 2.5 You hear from a fried workig for aother busiess that their computer systems have had a catastrophic crash followig ifectio by a virus which came i over the iteret. Describe the measures you could take to safeguard agaist a similar catastrophe to your ow systems.