[LINK] SMH: '4800 Aussie sites evaporate after hack'

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2011-06-22 at 10:42 +1000, Roger Clarke wrote:
> But, with current outsourcing arrangements, there are many 
> circumstances in which a customer is unable to perform their own 
> backups.

Then the customer should DEMAND that the circumstances change. While I
do have sympathy for those who lost stuff, I do feel it's their own
fault. Much as I might sympathise with someone who has a car accident
because they were driving while tired - sympathy yes, but a clear
understanding also that it was their own silly fault.

> For example, if a service has a front-end web-site that interacts 
> with a DBMS backend, the customer is unlikely to have access to the 
> DBMS and hence can't run scripts to periodically backup the database. 
> Indeed there are many contexts in which the customer doesn't even 
> have ftp-access to the directories containing the HTML, and hence 
> can't even run scripts to periodically backup the web-site.

The the customer is using the wrong provider. It's as simple as that.
Find the right provider, or there's always the option of running your
own server, if necessary hiring people to set it up and administer it.

And if those options seem "too expensive" then you need to look at what
losing it all would cost. Is *that* "too expensive"?

Sometimes, the numbers make it clear that you can't afford to be in the
business. If you want to risk it anyway, that's your call...

> Hence my call for litigation to make abundantly clear to 
> service-providers that with the authority they're creating for 
> themselves comes responsibility, accountability, liability - and 
> ultimately personal bankruptcy.

I think not. I think that should only be the case if they promise that
the data will be safe and fail to deliver. For what people pay for basic
hosting these days - $10 a month or so, sometimes less - expecting
unkillable backups is just fantasy.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer/                   +61-428-957160 (mob)

GPG fingerprint: DA41 51B1 1481 16E1 F7E2 B2E9 3007 14ED 5736 F687
Old fingerprint: B386 7819 B227 2961 8301 C5A9 2EBC 754B CD97 0156
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