Hacker Victim Alert! Could Spybot Members Rescue Lost Children's TV Episodes?

[Ehennigan]

In response to reading the article attached to the link below, I wondered if any Spybot members would be interested and/or able to form a "Lost Data Rescue & Recovery Mission" to help the creators of this children's TV show retrieve - all or in part - the many episodes they lost when a disgruntled employee hacked into their system and deleted all their work.

I do not know this company, nor am I by any means expert in the IT field (I am just learning). But it appears that they feel the data is lost...I know enough to know that many times data can be retrieved in places that most people would never think of. I also know a group of SUPREMELY intelligent, compassionate and extra-ordinary people here at Spybot who might find this to be an appropriate project that could benefit both the network, Spybot and others in many ways.

Here's the link to the story I found:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42366946/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/?gt1=43001

What do you all think? Is this a project worth exploring?

Any and all feedback is much appreciated. :thanks:

Elizabeth

[tashi]

Hello Ehennigan,


I do not know this company, nor am I by any means expert in the IT field (I am just learning). But it appears that they feel the data is lost...I know enough to know that many times data can be retrieved in places that most people would never think of.
Might be best to leave it to the creators to find their lost data. :)

It is possible it's available via torrent/P2P which could lead users into a gray area of legalities.

Best regards.

[Tom.K]

Just a comment about it: That guy is real moron, to destroy some work from others, and he additionally just made everything worse for himself and everyone else. I really hate those kind of people.

And sorry, I don't have any kind of archives of shows.

[shelf life]

"Lost Data Rescue & Recovery Mission"
There is such a thing, its called backups.

[tashi]

:funny:

[Ehennigan]

Thanks for posting! Should I try to send this info to them?
or...maybe best to leave it alone as suggested...

Didn't mean to invite more work...just thought maybe this might be something people might be interested in knowing about...or doing something about.

:cowboy:

[bitman]

Adding to what shelf life stated about backups already, anyone who would expect any online system to be the only repository for such key data is simply a fool. They're wasting their time with the suit and should simply have had an alternative preferably offline storage place from the beginning.

If the firm (ISP) in the article responsible for maintaining the data doesn't feel it can be recovered, it likely can't be, at least not without significantly high cost. Virtually no one you are mentioning this to here would have any clue how this might be accomplished and those who do would usually be paid hundreds to thousands for their work, primarily when the data stored on smaller stand-alone business systems is potentialy lost due to fire or flood.

This situation is the classic "all your eggs in one basket" and as such you'd hope those involved will learn something for the future, since that's the direction they should all be looking.

Rob

[Ehennigan]

Hi Rob!

Thanks so much for your post and insight! I agree...it's a mystery as to why they had no back-ups. Maybe the disgruntled employee erased the backups?


Virtually no one you are mentioning this to here would have any clue how this might be accomplished

Operative word here is "Virtually". Thought there might be a chance as I've met some pretty brilliant techs here...such as yourself. :)



and those who do would usually be paid hundreds to thousands for their work

Hmmm...what a pleasant thought. Wonder what an estimate for researching retrieval potential would be worth vs. how much they would like or could afford and/or need such a service. Then...wonder what an estimate for actual retrieval would be. Wonder what they would be willing to compensate a qualified professional and/or organization.


primarily when the data stored on smaller stand-alone business systems is potentialy lost due to fire or flood.

Gathering the data from smaller stand-alone business systems that perhaps still have their part of the data in tact? What a brilliant idea, Rob! Perhaps that would be a puzzle worth putting together. Why do you think there has been fire or flood potential? Even so, maybe at least a partial retrieval?


This situation is the classic "all your eggs in one basket" and as such you'd hope those involved will learn something for the future, since that's the direction they should all be looking.

Rob

I'm all for learning from past mistakes...and looking to the future. I guess I'm one of those optomistic "let's fix it" types that likes to explore even potential solution possibilities before throwing in the towel.

Thanks for your post, Rob!!

[bitman]

I'm quite certain these people are intelligent enough to think of the option of looking elsewhere for their data if it exists outside the systems where the data was destroyed.

What you are seeing in the article are the reporting of the publicly announced portions of an argument relating to the situation they've gotten themselves into and so we really know very little of the true complete story. The most telling portion is the last paragraph, which is where the true disagreement is likely to be found.

"WER1 says it got some restitution as a result of Jewson's plea agreement, but is now suing CyberLynk and Jewson for breach of contract, negligence, conversion and computer fraud, saying that the company violated its contractual promises to provide secure data hosting."

That last portion relating to "secure data hosting" is likely where the disagreement actually lies, since whether this was expected to include backups kept separately on some regular basis would define where the actual fault lies.

Anyone capable of suing over such a situation doesn't need my help. If they are correct they will gain some restitution from the courts, if not someone is simply trying to save face for having not properly prepared in the first place.

In either case, I'd have no interest in becoming involved with such an organization, since you'd never know what they might do if what you attempted were to fail. In fact, it's highly unlikely that anyone could actually gain access to the equipment that contained the lost data, since it's already embroiled in two separate court actions that we're aware of as evidence.

Bitman

[Ehennigan]

Hey bitman!

:thanks:

You offer such great insight!

There's always the "Good Semaritan" defense.

But...
as you mentioned, due to the current legal process, it may be a long time before any practical help could come their way... assuming, of course, such help was even possible..