Are We Ready For a True Data Disaster? 113
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.'"
Easy and Obvious answer (Score:5, Insightful)
N-O.
We are never ready for any major disaster. It is silly to think we ever will be given our inability to agree on such major planning initiatives.
Truly catastrophic data disaster... (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a grip, drama queen.
Re:Easy and Obvious answer (Score:5, Insightful)
I think more accurately, if we were prepared for it, it wouldn't be a disaster.
Re:Truly catastrophic data disaster... (Score:4, Insightful)
But the suns magnetic field can't just increase by a few orders of magnitude, so it has to be induced by a solar flare. A hemisphere sized geomagnetic storm [wikipedia.org] however first has to hit the power lines quite hard to produce strong magnetic fields, and then humanity will have other problems.
It's not MY data, it's YOUR data (Score:5, Insightful)
So, for example when a bank says that my identity has been stolen and my bank account drained, what they're really saying is some data they held became insecure and they let an unaurthorised (i.e. not me, or someone I have power of withdrawl to) person take it from them, and that lack of care on their part allowed someone to take money from them (but not from me).
it's only after these sorts of ownership and liability factors are widely accepted and written into law, that we can start to assign responsibility for information that people or organisations hold regarding us. I fully expect that once organisations are deemed liable for any damage or loss that occurs because they lose or fail to secure their data, the problems of identity theft, data loss and security will solve themselves.
Re:Truly catastrophic data disaster... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy and Obvious answer (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy and Obvious answer (Score:3, Insightful)
"I'm sorry, perhaps you need to qualify disaster.
A disaster qualifies itself by the loses it induces. Take an earthquake, a tsunami, a stock crash...
"I thought the 100 million (now estimated) accounts compromised in the TJX breach or the approximately 100 million in the Heartland Payment Systems breach, were just that - disastrous."
So you thought, uh? What exactly were the loses? Specifically, what were the loses for those responsible of the incident? Because if there were no loses, then there's no disaster. A nuisance or an incident, maybe, but not a disaster.
Offshoring (Score:3, Insightful)
We farm the processing of a great deal of data to low-wage countries that don't even like us. To be managed by guys whose entire year's pay is the same as what you're paid for a week. Which means they are very easy to bribe. Oh and they also think we Americans are evil lazy shits who deserve the pain and suffering we get.
What I am saying is that a disastrous data breach involving millions of Americans' financial or medical data will happen more likely overseas than it will happen anywhere in the U.S. And when it hits you, you will have absolutely zero recourse. Of course, someone could show I'm wrong by explaining to us how the FBI can manage to arrest an identity thief in Bangalore...
So not only are we unable to agree on disaster planning, but the entire system is DESIGNED to provide fertile ground for a disaster.
Re:Actually it'd be a good thing... (Score:3, Insightful)
This would be like the biblical tower of babel falling and as a result this would help push us to our next stage of evolution.
Nope, it would be a de-evolution. It would set us back. If you realized how far we've progressed in the last fifty years (let alone the last 100) you'd understand this.
Should such a thing happen, then in order to just maintain some level of society, alot of dishonesty and deception will have to be put aside.
Oh, the naivete of youth! With such a disaster the dishonest among us would have a field day.