From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Mon May 18 2009 - 00:44:15 CDT

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Forwarded from: security curmudgeon <jericho (at) attrition.org>

: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8049780.stm
:
: Flight simulator site Avsim has been "destroyed" by malicious hackers.
:
: The site, which launched in 1996, covered all aspects of flight
: simulation, although its main focus was on Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
:
: The attack took down the site's two servers and the owners had not
: established an external backup system.

While I am very sympathetic for their loss, I can't help but wonder how
a site that has been around since 1996 hadn't established a real backup
system. Backing up to the 'other machine' providing service is only good
for stopping a hard drive crash from shutting the site down.

There has been amusing responses since this article including:

  http://twitter.com/StephenNorthcut/status/1813291375

  Ouch, 13 years of flt sim data destroyed by hacker, $10K from me for
  arrest and conviction. RT? Have the cash.

What is it with these monetary knee-jerk reactions? Microsoft does it
yearly, offering stupid amounts of money to catch the person who
wormified an exploit for the latest vulnerability in Windows. Now we
have armchair security dorks offering this kind of money to catch bad
guys, when $150 dollars would have provided the site with a 1 terabyte
external drive that could be unplugged between backups?

--
LayerOne 2009, Information Security for the discerning professional.
May 23-24 2009 The Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California
Visit http://layerone.info for more information

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