T-Mobile Data Loss

The security story of the week that I have found the most interesting is the data loss by Microsoft subsidiary Danger, which provides Sidekick data services to T-Mobile customers. There are lots of different stories about what actually happened including one about a disaffected insider deliberately sabotaging certain critical systems. Whatever is true, there was clearly something lacking in the backup and restore procedures. What I find most astonishing is that some Microsoft apologists seem to be trying to blame Oracle and Sun for the issue as this was the platform in use for the Sidekick data services. If you are a customer who has just lost your data, this is not what you want to hear, as it for the supplier to manage the systems whatever they are.

At the business level, if you trust your data to a third party, you need assurances that they not only correctly backup your data but they that test also the restore procedures at regular intervals. Off site storage of backup media should also be a non negotiable requirement. Obviously at the consumer level, such assurances are harder to come by.

There has also been some debate as to whether the incident has been a set back for Cloud Computing. Putting aside the argument about what Cloud Computing actually is, if you engage a Cloud Computing service you need to check its provision for backup and restore as you would any other service.

It now looks like the T-Mobile data will be recovered which is great for consumers and hopefully a wake up call for other companies who manager and process data.