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Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

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Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#91

Meanwhile, Estonia has a "data embassy" in Luxembourg: https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-governance/data-embassy/ TL;DR: Estonia operates a Tier 4 (highest security) data center in Luxembourg with diplomatic immunity. Can actively run critical government services in real-time, not just backups.

That is absolutely delightful. Estonia is just _good_ at this stuff. Admirable.

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#92
post #42

Mindblowing. Took a walk. All I can say is that if business continues "as usual" and the economy and public services continue largely unaffected then either there were local copies of critical documents, or you can fire a lot of those workers; either one of those ways the "stress test" was a success.

Surely having human-resource backups will also help with disaster recovery

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#94

It's hard to believe this happened. South Korea has tech giants like Samsung, and yet this is how the government runs? Is the US government any better?

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the South Korean government is the storied tradition of physical confrontation in their parliament along with more than a few viral videos of brawls and such over the years. It used to be better in the US, but with the intensity of discord in our government lately, I don't think anyone really knows anymore.

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#95
The government official who insisted that commercial AWS/GCP/Azure couldn't possibly be trusted with keeping the information will be keeping their head low for a few days then...

"The Interior Ministry explained that while most systems at the Daejeon data center are backed up daily to separate equipment within the same center and to a physically remote backup facility, the G-Drive’s structure did not allow for external backups."

This is absolutely wild.

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#96
post #52

Funny, because the same thing happened in Nepal a few weeks ago. Protestors/rioters burned some government buildings, along with the tech infrastructure within them, so now almost all electronic data is gone.

[flagged]

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#98

The government official who insisted that commercial AWS/GCP/Azure couldn't possibly be trusted with keeping the information will be keeping their head low for a few days then... "The Interior Ministry explained that while most systems at the Daejeon data center are backed up daily to separate equipment within the same center and to a physically remote backup facility, the G-Drive’s structure did not allow for extern…

Rightfully did not trust these companies. Sure what happened is a disaster for them, but you cant simply trust Amazon & Microsoft.

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#99

Meanwhile, Estonia has a "data embassy" in Luxembourg: https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-governance/data-embassy/ TL;DR: Estonia operates a Tier 4 (highest security) data center in Luxembourg with diplomatic immunity. Can actively run critical government services in real-time, not just backups.

This is because everything is in digital form. Essentially all government systems are digital-first, and for the citizen, often digital-only. If the data is lost, there may be no paper records to restore everything from land registry, business registry (operating agreements, ownership records), etc.

Without an out-of-country backup, a reversion to previous statuses means the country is lost (Estonia has been occupied a lot). With it, much of the government can continue to function, as an expat government until freedom and independence is restored.

Re: Fire destroys S. Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available

#100
post #68

> The Interior Ministry explained that while most systems at the Daejeon data center are backed up daily to separate equipment within the same center and to a physically remote backup facility, the G-Drive’s structure did not allow for external backups. This is why I don't really want to run my own cloud :) Actually testing the backups is boring. That said, ones the flames are out, they might actually be able to reco…

Testing backups is boring. If you want exciting, test restores!
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