Australian Government data loss was avoidable!

March 18, 2009 - The deletion of more than 10,000 Government records in Australia’s Northern Territory by the drunken ex-fiancée of an IT staff member highlights the need for protection of critical user IDs, passwords and government data.

The internet is full of reports of the deletion of 10,475 user accounts on the Northern Territories’ health, court and prison service’s computer systems in a drunken rage after one member of IT staff terminated a relationship with another IT employee.

The plain facts of the incident, which reports say cost five days of staff time and in excess of A$1.1 million to resolve - is that the governments security and backup systems didn’t work.

The data should have been stored digitally, encrypted and offsite with Data Vault Security. The data would then only have been accessed on an auditable basis by authorised members of staff.

It is inconceivable that high level administrator IDs & Data such as these were misused in the Northern Territories data deletion incident. The incident is a classic case of insufficient data protection and backup methodology being applied to high level administrator IDs, passwords and data.

Automated Online Backup technology is no longer the expensive option that many people think it is. It’s cost-effective, easily deployable and perhaps more importantly allows you to restore maliciously deleted data instantly.

The Northern Territory would have saved over A$1.1 Million dollars of Tax Payers money if they had only utilized the services of Data Vault Security.


By Andy T Hansen, International Sales Director, Data Vault Security.