The boomerangs flying over the Homewood campus on Friday were sending a message to arriving freshmen: The papers, research, music, photographs and other important data that they were about to pile onto their computers would always be able to come back, even if their hard drives crashed, thanks to software that Johns Hopkins is now offering to all faculty, staff and students.

IT @ Johns Hopkins recently signed an agreement with U-Vault, an online data protection service that is powered by redBoomerang. (The attention-getting demonstration was courtesy of champion throwers from the U.S. Boomerang Association.)

U-Vault provides secure online data storage for Microsoft Windows systems through a Johns Hopkins Internet connection, or any available working Internet connection. After a brief setup, selection and scheduling process, the software runs automatically in the background on the protected system, based on the time schedule chosen by the user, as long as a working Internet connection is available.

Initially, all folders and files chosen for backup protection are encrypted and transmitted via the Internet to a secure server, using compression technology. Upon subsequent use, only data that has changed since the last backup is transmitted. Data is securely backed up on a server at an off-site location that only the user can access, with an ID and password. Each account receives a backup storage quota of 10GB of compressed data, which can store up to 20GB of uncompressed data.

Students who purchase Windows laptop systems through the IT @ Johns Hopkins Mobile Computing Program for 2006 or 2007 will be eligible to receive the service free for four years. For more information about this offering, go to: www.it.jhu.edu/desktop/mcp/students/ u-vault.html.

The cost for the data protection service for others is $99 per year, and it can be purchased through U-Vault's Web site at www.u-vault.com/jh.

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