Worst Data Disasters From 2014 – Kroll Ontrack

Kroll Ontrack Inc., provider of data recovery and ediscovery products and services, announced its 12th annual list of the top 10 data disasters from 2014.
 
For the last 12 years, the company has been collecting and publishing a list of the toughest physical and logical failures from its offices around the globe.

“Kroll Ontrack is proud to be able to ‘save the day’ when the unexpected happens,” said Todd Johnson, VP of data recovery operations, Kroll Ontrack. “As the global leader in data recovery, Kroll Ontrack applies its state-of-the-art data recovery services and proprietary data recovery software to recover from all types of deleted, corrupt, missing, or inaccessible data loss. We’ve truly seen it all, but never give up hope. That attitude is what makes us successful, even with the worst of cases.”

2014 Top Ten List of Data Disasters Compiled by Kroll Ontrack

?1 A Difference in Opinion (Poland)
From the client’s perspective: “My laptop did not want to follow my instructions. We totally disagreed with each other, and I lost my temper, hitting it strongly with an open hand. The laptop drive was damaged – that’s why I’m here.” At odds with his computer, the client hit the laptop directly in the place where the drive resided, and that resulted in the head scratching the platters. It was extensive damage, but Kroll Ontrack recovered 50% of the crucial data.

?2 Waterfall Folly (Iceland)
A young woman was taking pictures on her smartphone of a beautiful waterfall when a gust of wind drenched her with spray from the waterfall. She was covered in water and so was her phone. The woman lost access to her phone and all of her photos, but Kroll Ontrack performed a full recovery returning the photos and the phone in working order.

?3 It Can Happen to Anyone (USA)
Even Kroll Ontrack employees are not immune to data loss. While visiting the restroom in between meetings, an employee slipped her iPhone into the back-pocket of her pants for safe keeping. As she stood up and picked up her briefcase to exit, the phone escaped, landing squarely in the toilet. Dripping wet, the employee brought her personal phone to the mobile recovery specialist in the cleanroom with a plea for help. All of the employee’s phone data, including her photos of her daughter, contacts and text messages were recovered.

?4 Data Under Attack (USA)
When data loss is intentional, it’s usually with malicious intent. Hackers infiltrated a hotel this year deleting all of the active and backup data for 35 LUNs. Engineers worked onsite and remotely to recover all of the data that was lost.
 
?5 Swept Away Server (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
A flood in the Balkan countries swept a RAID server 100 meters from the building it originated in. It took two weeks to locate the server where it had been sitting in water the entire time. Kroll Ontrack recovered 100% of the data.

?6 Microsoft Surface Mystery (USA)
Sometimes we don’t get the story behind what happened to a device. Kroll Ontrack received a Microsoft Surface ‘smashed’ into pieces. All that is known is that data recovery was 100% successful.

?7 The Dog Ate My … (USA)
A dog mistook a USB flash drive for a chew toy. When the drive arrived at Kroll Ontrack, it had teeth marks all over it. The dog eventually made it out of the dog house because all of the USB drive data was recovered.

?8 Unfortunate Accident (Norway)
Kroll Ontrack received a call from a person who was in a ferry accident. His camera had been submerged in the water for over an hour. Ontrack Data Recovery specialists were able to recover the photos from the corroded memory card.

?9 Late (USA)
One company was preparing for a new IT infrastructure. The new storage array was waiting to be unpacked and powered up in the server room. The day before connecting it, the old storage array broke down and access to critical data was lost. After few minutes of panic and stress, an IT administrator decided not to make the situation worse and called the specialists at Kroll Ontrack. Everything ended positively.

?10 Water Damage at a Fire Call (Germany)
A firefighter was fighting a fire when his Nokia Lumia 610 was damaged by water. He lost all of his data including photos of family and friends. Kroll Ontrack recovered 732 photos from the phone.

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