Computer Files

Backing up computer files is important. Most of us will face a computer crisis of some type sooner or later. Putting it off can have disastrous consequences for business owners. Damaged or lost data files often cost small or home-based businesses weeks, months or even years of work. It can happen at any time for many reasons. Having backup files available in the event of trouble could be the difference between staying open or shutting down. There are several ways to back up your business files.

Baltimore police said Friday that patient pictures taken by Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy could contain child pornography, and they've turned the evidence over to the FBI for analysis. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to elaborate but said the files reviewed so far contained pictures of patients photographed during medical examinations and could include images of juveniles - which he characterized as a legitimate possibility given the age of some of Levy's patients.

Baltimore police said Friday that patient pictures taken by Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy could contain child pornography, and they've turned the evidence over to the FBI for analysis. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to elaborate but said the files reviewed so far contained pictures of patients photographed during medical examinations and could include images of juveniles - which he characterized as a legitimate possibility given the age of some of Levy's patients.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Files provided by Colombian officials from computers they say were captured in a cross-border raid in Ecuador on March 1 appear to tie Venezuela's government to efforts to secure arms for Colombia's largest insurgency. Officials taking part in Colombia's investigation of the computers provided The New York Times with copies of more than 20 files, some of which also showed contributions from the rebels to the 2006 campaign of Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa.

It's probably the only thing my mother didn't nag me about. But my computer consultant sure does."Back up your computer regularly," he warns me at least 10 times a year.To me, "regularly" is relative. Who has time to sit back with maybe 50 or 60 diskettes and back up two huge hard drives?Well, my cavalier attitude to backing up my computer files ended a few weeks ago. On Saturday, March 6, I turned on my computer to work on some critical client deadlines. Instead, I watched one of my hard disks get devoured by the Michelangelo virus.

If you have old stock, keep it. The company might be worthless, the certificate might not.With the trend toward book entries -- recording transactions on computer files -- paper certificates could become extinct within the decade.So, stocks you kept as a souvenir of a bad investment could be worth more than the paper they're printed on.For collectors -- the formal title is scripophilists -- paper stocks have the same appeal as stamps or old currency. They're often colorful, ornately engraved and sometimes, signed by famous industrialists.

WASHINGTON - The government yesterday lowered the terror alert level for five high-visibility financial institutions in Washington, New York and Newark, N.J., citing improved protective measures at the buildings. The institutions affected are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, both a few blocks from the White House; the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup Center in New York; and the headquarters of Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark. Computer files seized in Pakistan this summer had identified the facilities as being under surveillance by al-Qaida.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Files provided by Colombian officials from computers they say were captured in a cross-border raid in Ecuador on March 1 appear to tie Venezuela's government to efforts to secure arms for Colombia's largest insurgency. Officials taking part in Colombia's investigation of the computers provided The New York Times with copies of more than 20 files, some of which also showed contributions from the rebels to the 2006 campaign of Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa.

State police and prosecutors have not yet determined what prompted two North Carroll High student hackers to crack security codes to Board of Education electronic payroll files and alter employees' personal information last week.Sgt. Laura Lu Herman, a spokeswoman, said troopers from the state police Computer Crimes Unit will check all school system payroll computer files to determine if other records were altered.The two students have been questioned, but no charges have been filed, prosecutor Edward J. Puls Jr. said yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- Until recently, the government's $50 million monthly phone bill ran to more than a million pages and ended up boxed in a southern Illinois warehouse.But in a development both marvelous and ominous, those bills are now available on six shiny CD-ROM discs.Government bosses and investigators can now identify in 18 seconds -- and without a court order -- the date, time and duration of every long distance call made from hundreds of thousands of federal phones.In theory, the new system will help managers trim personal calls from the government's phone bill.

Backing up computer files is important. Most of us will face a computer crisis of some type sooner or later. Putting it off can have disastrous consequences for business owners. Damaged or lost data files often cost small or home-based businesses weeks, months or even years of work. It can happen at any time for many reasons. Having backup files available in the event of trouble could be the difference between staying open or shutting down. There are several ways to back up your business files.

WASHINGTON - Three British nationals whose alleged surveillance of U.S. financial landmarks triggered an increase in the terrorist threat level last summer were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they were planning a catastrophic attack with "weapons of mass destruction," the Justice Department disclosed yesterday. The federal indictment, unsealed in New York, alleges that the three men, including a reputed top al-Qaida operative, conducted secret surveillance of the New York Stock Exchange, the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington and other structures in 2000 and 2001 as part of a plot to destroy the buildings and kill Americans, Justice Department officials said.

WASHINGTON - The government yesterday lowered the terror alert level for five high-visibility financial institutions in Washington, New York and Newark, N.J., citing improved protective measures at the buildings. The institutions affected are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, both a few blocks from the White House; the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup Center in New York; and the headquarters of Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark. Computer files seized in Pakistan this summer had identified the facilities as being under surveillance by al-Qaida.

When Google.com was temporarily brought to its knees Monday by a cyber virus, engineers at the world's most popular search engine barely flinched. Within hours, they had restored service, issued a modest statement and felt the breeze from the global sigh that followed the successful counter of another attack. But such a comfortable rhythm of combat and cure is misleading, experts say. The danger of an Internet assault with catastrophic consequences is growing week by week. "The threats are more sophisticated, and the stakes are higher," said Lawrence C. Hale, deputy director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division of the Homeland Security Department.

In the world of medical high technology, there is arguably no hotter intersection than Baltimore and Greene streets. On one corner, the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center has virtually eliminated the need for patients to haul X-rays or paper charts from one VA appointment to the next. Instead, doctors and nurses use computers to summon screens of CT scan images, lab test results and medication histories for any patient seen at hundreds of VA hospitals and clinics nationwide. Across Baltimore Street, University of Maryland Medical Center employees click into patients' records on wireless computers set atop rolling carts.

BALTIMORE'S COLLECTIVE memories are fading. And flaking. And destined to turn to dust. Hundreds of thousands of yellowing newspaper clippings, irreplaceable pamphlets and scarce documents - ranging from old theater playbills to political campaign material - are disintegrating as they age in the Enoch Pratt Free Library's collections. Fortunately, aided by state and federal grants, the library has started digitizing some of its paper rarities, transferring their images and text onto computer disks.

The Court of Special Appeals has upheld Ronald Walter Price's child abuse convictions, ruling his claim that he was illegally detained was "bizarre" and also rejecting his contention that he was charged improperly and tried with tainted evidence.The stinging 11-page opinion gave a graphic account of the crimes of the former Northeast High School social studies teacher, whose case gained national attention when he admitted on the television show "Geraldo!" that he had had sex with his students, then rejected his claims in a tone that bordered on the sarcastic.

Trusted Information Systems Inc. said sales of its computer security products rose 218 percent last year, exceeding Wall Street expectations. The Glenwood company spent the money on faster-than-planned growth, putting yesterday's earnings report about where analysts initially predicted.Trusted said it lost $757,535, or 7 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 1996 and almost $2.2 million, or 25 cents per share, for the year. In 1995, the company earned a profit of $384,256 in the fourth quarter and $1.3 million (15 cents a share)

The G-word has finally become official, when speaking of the continuing Iraq war. The new U.S. commander of allied troops in Iraq, John Abizaid, voiced Wednesday what had long been evident: There is "a classical guerrilla-type campaign" being waged by loyalists of Saddam Hussein who are picking off American troops. Abizaid's frankness contrasts with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's public pussyfooting around the nature of the Iraq fighting. Rumsfeld has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that U.S. forces are facing organized resistance, or guerrilla warfare.

Representatives of the media, businesses and private investigators sharply criticized last night a proposal by the Maryland judiciary to limit access to computerized criminal court records, saying it would hinder important background checks of public officials and prospective employees. Speaking at a public hearing in Annapolis that highlighted the issue of public access and privacy being faced by courts across the country, James Donahue, executive director of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C.