Tag Archives: Investment

Protecting Your Company With Business Insurance

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If you run a business, it’s important to protect yourself from significant losses whenever possible. Running a company isn’t easy, and a number of things can derail your progress and prevent you from achieving your goals. To protect yourself from any serious setbacks, it’s a good idea to invest in business insurance. There are a variety of plans for commercial entities that cover any number of things, and you should consider the benefits of having your own unique policy.
Whether you own a furniture store, a restaurant, a technology firm, or an HVAC company, you can benefit from business insurance. Companies that offer commercial plans will work with you to select a specific plan that suits your exact needs. Some people simply want coverage for property damages. This can include protection from flood, fire, wind, and natural disasters. Others want liability coverage. This type of coverage can cover worker’s compensation in the event of an accident, repair disputes, and employment practice issues. Without liability insurance, it’s possible you could lose a lot of money if someone you employ or work with has a case ruled in their favor. By insuring your company, you’ll be able to afford any payments that are required as part of a settlement.

No company is too large or too small to be insured. Even if you’re self-employed, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place to help you sustain success. Commercial practices often need the same policies and coverages as individuals. This includes automobile and property protection. To maintain a successful business, it’s important to be able to take challenges in stride and focus on long-term success. Accidents in the workplace or losses that result from operational issues are unavoidable. While you can take every precaution to improve the way your company operates and implement new rules and regulations, you’re still bound to hit a bump or two. Growing a business isn’t easy, and there will be growing pains along the way. By insuring yourself and your company, you’ll be able to quickly move beyond any challenges you may face.

Whether you’re getting ready to start a new commercial enterprise or you’ve been running a company for quite some time, there are always ways to improve your business insurance plan. As your operation changes and grows, so should your policy. Insurers offer many types of plans to accommodate a variety of individuals. Some professionals want plans with extensive coverage and small deductibles. Others simply want to protect themselves from a catastrophic event. No matter what your budget may be, you’ll be able to find the right plan at the right price. Find an insurer in your area who can offer the exact kind of coverage you need.

Rescue for Pine Grove – Data Recovery Resurrects a Library

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On the morning of May 21, something happened. Suspicion fell first on kids playing with matches. But a Fire Department investigation soon revealed that it was faulty wiring in the walls that started the fire. The temporary building that permanently housed the Pine Grove Elementary School’s library in the town of Orcutt, California was no more. The formerly bright interior had taken on the cast of a coal mine.

Well before the investigation was concluded, community members and organizations donated thousands of dollars in cash and services to help rebuild. But there was a problem.

The building still stood, but its entire contents had been destroyed – books, shelves and desks turned to ash and embers. While the contents were insured, the data cache containing a listing of the contents was in a laptop on a burned desk in the building. The plastic of the laptop bore a strong resemblance to volcanic ejecta. There was no way to turn the computer on, and the backup for the data had been kept on a CD. The CD had been kept in the drawer of the desk on which the laptop sat. And the CD was now a puddle of melted plastic.

Fortunately, this is when Burgess Consulting & Forensics entered the scene. Using a mask and gloves, the first part of the project, after peeling the remains off the desk, was an archaeological expedition to the location of the hard disk inside the laptop. Knowing where was half the battle. A Dremel tool with various attachments allowed the excavation to proceed apace.

A careful cleaning of the outside of the drive allowed further inspection to proceed without contaminating the drive. Once the grit & smoke residue was removed, it became clear that several of the traces connecting the guts of the hard disk with the electronics outside the hard disk had burned through. These were repaired with small jumpers soldered onto the exposed traces of the membrane cable as it emerged from the hard disk’s insides.

The drive was opened in a clean room environment and miraculously, the smoke had stayed out of the enclosed portion of the drive. With delicate machinery, and clearances measured in microns, this was an important factor in the potential success of the recovery. Smoke particles can be larger than the clearance between read/write head and platters, making the process of reading the platters impossible.

The drive was attached to a write-blocker and every byte of the drive was transferred to another device. The partition structure was carefully rebuilt, and the file structure recovered. In the end, Burgess recovered all of the data – for free.

The school district’s alternative would have been to go through the costly process of examining decades of purchase orders and receipts in order to have even an estimate of the library’s charred inventory. But instead, a complete and up to date record could be presented to the insurance company.

And finally, the recovery was complete.

What is the moral of the story? There are two.

The first is about backups. Keep your backups current. And keep a copy off site.

The second is about community. Communities come together to make rebuilding from a disaster possible. Even with the resources of the school district, and funds from insurance, the reason the library could get back on its feet quickly, replacing its 8,000 book inventory and providing badly needed services to the children of Pine Grove once again was due to generous contributions of funds and services.