Are We Ready For a True Data Disaster?

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions how long we can go before a truly catastrophic data disaster strikes. 'The lure of potential profits in the information economy, combined with the apparent ease with which data can be gathered and a lack of regulation, creates a climate of recklessness in which a "data spill" of the scale of the Deepwater Horizon incident seems not just likely, but inevitable.' Witness Google mistakenly emailing potentially sensitive business data to customers of its Local Business Center service, or the 1.5 million Facebook accounts and passwords recently offered up on an underground hacking forum. 'These incidents seem relatively minor, but as companies gather ever more individually identifiable data and cross-reference these databases in new and more innovative ways, the potential for a major catastrophe grows.'"

Dataspill?

[ChrisMounce]

The question is, will we go for a top kill on the data leak, or will we first attempt more risky solutions which profit the data miners? What kind of concrete do you use to seal a data leak? And what's the conversion factor between the scale of an oil spill and the scale of a data spill? In other words, how do we get from m^2 to BAU (Bad Analogy Units), so we can compare them?

It's already happened

[Anonymous Coward]

I spilled hot grits down my pants this morning and when I flinched from the pain, I accidentally emailed a photo of a nude and petrified Natalie Portman to everyone in the company.

OK. Can you say Hyperbole?

[gbutler69]

We're so desperate to suck the last gallon of oil out of the earth that we've reached our technological limitations and soon peak-oil will devastate the modern world and you have the gall to call data-loss a "DISASTER"! Perspective man. Perspective.

Re:Dataspill?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

What kind of concrete do you use to seal a data leak?

Data leaks are sealed by abstract, not by concrete. Interfaces, traits, the works.

Re:Dataspill?

[Monkeedude1212]

how do we get from m^2 to BAU (Bad Analogy Units), so we can compare them?

Easy. We take a Car analagy, and use the units (CAU), divide by 1 Bad Analagy unit, leaving 1Car over 1Bad.

Next, we know Microsoft is bad, and their current market cap is 227.86 Billion Dollars. One of the most popular cars to make fun of in Analogies is a Prius, so you can turn your 1 car into 49miles per galon. Gas is averagely priced at 3.1 dollars per gallon, so you can multiply the miles per galon by that amount to get miles per dollar. So we have 15.8 miles per dollar. Units cancelling out, we get about 14421518987 miles, converted to meters is about 23209185052614. (I should mention these are rough estimates.)

Rooting that simply because I can, works out to be about 4817591 meters squared.

Make sense?

Re:Easy and Obvious answer

[Afforess]

No.
If we were ready, no one would run stories on whether we are ready or not. Duh!

Re:Cue Morbo

[lennier]

Right, the minute the Cloud starts showing signs of sentience, we pump all of 4chan into it.

Mind you there's a 50/50 shot that that's exactly what leads to Skynet vowing to exterminate us.

Re:Easy and Obvious answer

[darkpixel2k]

"What, exactly, constitutes a 'True Data Disaster?"

Are we talking about a data leak that effectively kills a company's credibility dead?

No, we're talking about a massive sunspot that destroys the interweb.

Re:Dataspill?

[ztcamper]

I think top kill approach that involves strong EMP would work like a charm. Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:Easy and Obvious answer

[SEWilco]

I think more accurately, if we were prepared for it, it wouldn't be a disaster.

I'm ready. I have a very large stock of data dispersion chemicals.

Re:Cue Morbo

[DiEx-15]

I guess since you use a Mac, you don't have to worry about such things..

Re:Facebook users?

[sjames]

Just because the creator(s) of the accounts can't pass the Turing test doesn't mean they're bogus :-)

Re:Dataspill?

[mcgrew]

There's already a data disaster. I'm drowning in data! Somebody throw me a lifeboat, quick!

*blurb blurb blurb blurb blurb blurb blurb blurb*