4 ms·
Similar, but the NTFS one was worse in that it was potentially a security vulnerability, since the corrupted data that it wrote inappropriately into the middle
by jimrandomh 11y ago
Similar, but the NTFS one was worse in that it was potentially a security vulnerability, since the corrupted data that it wrote inappropriately into the middle of files came from elsewhere in the filesystem, rather than zeroes.
(Software is hard and often buggy, filesystems included. Check your backups! Even if your filesystem is perfect, I spilled water on my laptop yesterday, and you could, too.)
- mikeash 11y agoIf data isn't backed up, it doesn't exist. If it's not backed up offsite, it's not backed up. These are words to live or die by. I don't think it's likely that I'll spill water on your laptop, though.
- hnyc 11y agoIt seems so far that I'm immortal.
- janfoeh 11y ago3) if you haven't successfully tried to restore it, it's not backed up. As the old saying goes, nobody cares about backups — people care only about restores.
- mikeash 11y agoThat is an excellent and often overlooked point!
- quotedmycode 11y agoYeah, I like to extend this out and make it generic like this: If you don't test it, how do you know? For example, one person told me he can't understand antivirus software and why people buy it, because he never got a virus. I asked him "how do you know you didn't get a virus?". He just looked at me, not saying a word. I hope my point got across though. If you aren't checking, you don't know. Same could be said about hacking these days. You secure your system, that's good, but if you don't have something to detect hackers, you are the same as the guy without antivirus and the guy without tested backups. You just have no idea whether or not you are protected.
- FeepingCreature 11y agoThough to be fair, the people telling me that I might have a virus are the people who want me to give them money. "How do you know you didn't get a virus?" I don't. But it's not epistemically clean to let other people set your priors for things like risk, if they have a financial interest in making you worry.
- digi_owl 11y agoThats pretty much a variation on the Lucas Critique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_critique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_critique And sadly one reason why IT is a easy department for the beancounters to downsize.