Is tape dead?

[Alexander Schreiber]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 01:49:56PM -0400, Mouse wrote:
> >> Ever heard of CRYPTOWALL ?  I think that I got it from looking at
> >> PDFs on the web while doing some research.  [...]
> 
> I trust you've now switched PDF viewers to one that doesn't
> gratuitously execute (attempts at) live content?
> 
> > Sounds like Cryptolocker.  Even the police paid the ransom to get
> > their data back.
> 
> If the police needed to even _consider_ doing that, they need to fire
> whoever decided they didn't need proper backups.  (And whoever was
> responsible for the mistake that got it running there to begin with,
> either whoever decided to let it run or whoever decided to use tools
> that would let it run, depending.)

I've worked for the police, running IT infrastructure (backend HA UNIX
servers). I can totally see this happening. In our case, the Windows
NT based workstations were supposedly locked down to be only useful for
actually getting work done (i.e. Outlook for calendar/mail, inhouse
apps for doing paperwork). When we had reason to scan fileserver backups
we found all kinds of crap (games and stuff) that wasn't supposed to be
there. And we actually _ran_ tape based backups - I've known other places
in the police force that weren't so ... diligent about it.

Kind regards,
           Alex.
-- 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
 looks like work."                                      -- Thomas A. Edison