Big Mistake: Wiping Out Data Worth $38B

Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $38 billion (€29 billion). That is what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account.

If that wasn’t enough, even the backup drive was formatted! Then bad luck persisted, as their backup tape drives were also unreadable. Even still, most would at least verify that their backups are in good order before relying on them.

Source: Herald Tribune