Backing up data is one of the most important, yet also one of the most neglected areas of computing. Backing up your data should be at the top of your computer maintenance list, right next to virus protection. Without data backup or virus protection, you are running the risk of losing your data. And it will happen, don’t think that you don’t have to worry about it.

When our computers are lost or stolen we usually feel like our world’s falling apart, especially if we didn’t backup our data. All the work we did on that computer, the snapshots we took, the memories we saved, are gone forever. However, for Sook Shin, a cancer researcher at Oklahoma University, it’s not only memories that are gone, but it also might have been a cure for cancer.

Sook Shin and her husband Ralf Jankecht, both leading cancer researchers at the university, were close to finding a cure for prostate cancer. They were on their way back to the lab when they made a quick stop in Oklahoma City. When they returned to the car the couple found that someone had smashed the window and stolen their white MacBook that contained years of cancer research - research that wasn’t backed up and might take years to replicate.

The couple is devastated with the loss, and is putting up fliers at local pawn shops with a $1,000 reward for the notebook, along with the data stored on it. Hopefully the thief comes across the flier and returns the notebook for the reward. Or, at the very least, backs up the data and returns it to the researchers just like the world’s most ethical thief did in Sweden.