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

[Kim Holburn]

On 2011/Jun/22, at 10:13 AM, Brenda Aynsley wrote:

> On 22/06/11 09:29, Roger Clarke wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On the Whirlpool discussion forums, where there are over 60 pages of
>> posts discussing the Distribute.IT hack, customers were livid at
>> finding out their data was gone forever.
>> 
>> "I think I'm in shock ... I have lost everything .... I couldnt
>> possibly replicate all those years of work again ... my whole lifes
>> work is gone down the drain," wrote one.
> 
> 
> I have no sympathy for people who who find themselves in this situation 
> and who havent done anything themselves to protect their investment.
> 
> I remember years ago losing about 4 hours of work on a computer; that 
> taught me to take responsibility for my 'valuable' data and to keep it 
> backed up.  I now have a backup regime that I am happy with where the 
> data I lose should disaster occur is within tolerable limits and it's no 
> big deal to do the backups.
> 
> what is wrong with people taking responsibility for backing up their own 
> data?  In my view this is the first law of being a user of any computer 
> device.  If you consider it of value, then treat it with the respect it 
> deserves.

Several times recently I've had to deal with situations where people lost a lot of data on a website and I just went to google cache and retrieved it.  If not google cache then the way back machine or pandora.  There are probably others copies too.  After all what goes into the cloud stays in the cloud.

That's not to say that people shouldn't have a backup strategy, but these things are not always irretrievable.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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