I know we've covered this in software, but I posted it here because I think it might be covered by IT Apps as well. From the slashdot article:
"Flight Simulator community website Avsim has experienced a total data loss after both of their online servers were hacked. The site's founder, Tom Allensworth, explained why 13 years of community developed terrains, skins, and mods will not be restored from backups: 'Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers between our two servers. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation.'"
This is a classic example of why you should have a bulletproof disaster recovery plan, and why you should have off-site backups. They relied on one of the two servers remaining online, and they lost years worth of data as a result of this. It shows us a real example of why off site backup is so important.
Going a bit off topic here, I'd like to point out the anger as a result of this. Now, I have nothing against gray hat hackers who breach security and then notify the admins of the problem in the system, or who just pull a harmless prank and leave, but this really does show the power that our aspiring grey hats wield.
