Data Storage | DataRecoveryUnion.com

8. Conficker
Shaun Nichols: The global catastrophe that wasn’t, the third form of the Conficker attack provided nice theatrics but little in the way of actual damage.

The premise was pretty simple: Conficker.C would spread to as many machines as possible throughout March. Each infected machine was given a huge list of domains, one of which would be contacted by 1 April.

The deadline made all the difference. Now, Conficker wasn’t just a simple malware infection, it was a ‘ticking time bomb’, and a looming menace that would unleash carnage. Or at least that’s what the story turned into when unscrupulous security vendors and tech-newbie news outlets got hold of the story.

Then the deadline passed and, pretty much as every reasonable person in the industry predicted, Conficker didn’t do much of anything. The botnet remains intact and still poses a threat, but nothing near the utter cyber-carnage that many spoke of.

Iain Thomson: Conficker has now started its attacks and has proved to be just another botnet builder like most other malware.

However, the media panic over Conficker has shown that people are still scared of viruses. As Bruce Schneier pointed out at RSA last week, Conficker hit all the right buttons. It had a funny sounding name, was mysterious and was set to do something on a ‘magic’ date.

Conficker has, however, served a useful purpose. It spreads via a vulnerability that has had a patch available since last October. If my company’s servers got hit by a vulnerability that old, my IT manager would be getting a stern talking to, possibly involving a thumbscrew and a hot pair of pliers.

7. ExploreZip
Iain Thomson: ExploreZip was written over a decade ago but is still to be found in the wild today, a good example of how persistent these little programs can be.

ExploreZip, like most viruses of the time, targeted Windows systems a nd was spread via email. The recipient got an email reading ‘I have received your email and I shall send you a reply ASAP. Till then take a look at the attached zipped docs.’

Clicking on the attachment booted the virus onto the user’s computer and it immediately spammed itself out to all of the contacts in Outlook. More worryingly it also overwrote Word documents with lines of zeros, and did some damage to the operating system itself. As destructive worms go it wasn’t too bad, but in the pre-Millennium days of 1999 it certainly caused a panic.

Shaun Nichols: Often, viruses aren’t meant to be overtly destructive. Older viruses often did damage through unintended conflicts, while newer malware tries to remain undetected in order to steal data or hijack programs.

This wasn’t the case with ExploreZip, however. Upon receiving the virus, users would open an attachment that would immediately begin damaging the host computer.

This seems pretty scary at first. But when you think about it, a damaged hard drive is still far less serious than a hijacked bank account.

Data Storage

Top 10 worst computer viruses (Part Two)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago05 mins

10. Elk Cloner
Iain Thomson: Elk Cloner was written by a 15-year old high school student called Rich Skrenta as a practical joke. Unfortunately for him the joke turned bad very quickly.

The virus was developed for the Apple II system and was a boot sector virus that spread via floppy discs. Apparently Skrenta was a fan of pirated games and would swap them with his friends, sometimes with little messages added. After one too many of these infected discs, he devised a way to alter discs automatically and the Elk Cloner virus was invented.

It had little in the way of a payload. Every 50th time a person booted an infected disc the software ran a little program on the computer screen, and that was it. Nevertheless it was a serious annoyance and was a harbinger of things to come.

Shaun Nichols: And they say Apple computers don’t get viruses. What Skrenta did not realise was that he was helping to popularise what would later become standard practice for spreading viruses.

Elk Cloner spread through what is now known as a ‘boot sector’ infection. The virus copied itself into the boot sector of a floppy disk and then spread into all future disks. This became a popular attack method for Apple and PC computers, taking over as the preferred method of infection until the internet came along and email attacks emerged.

9. Klez
Iain Thomson: Klez is a persistent little devil, and variants are still doing the rounds today, seven years after it first turned up.

The most common varient, Klez H, spoofs email addresses by randomly picking one from an infected machine before sending itself on to other users. This makes backtracing the identity of the infected machine particularly difficult, since any email stored for any reason can be used.

It exploits a vulnerability in Outlook that allows it to boot up automatically on unpatched systems. It’s a cunning little devil but for all its ingenuity I still want to strangle the writer.

Shaun Nichols: The late 1990s and early 2000s were not only the golden age of the internet, they seemed to be the golden age for malware. Over that time period, few viruses were able to match the reign of Klez.

Like many other viruses of its time, Klez spread through email. Users were duped into opening infected files and, once the malware was installed, the victim’s address book was opened and copies of the attack were sent to contacts.

Klez, however, took this a step further. Not only did the virus send itself to people in your address book, it pretended to be from other people. Later, the worm wreaked further havoc by pretending to be its own removal tool.

Data Storage

Top 10 worst computer viruses (Part One)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago6 years ago05 mins

All this panic over a simple strain of flu got us thinking about some of the more virulent computer pandemics that have hit in recent years. While a computer virus pales in seriousness to a human outbreak, malware attacks can still take a huge toll on businesses throughout the world.

The viruses below may not have been the most widespread or effective, although many of them were. Instead they are the ones that stick in the mind as being particularly notable. There are been so many over the years, and viruses will always be a part of computing now, but these may bring back memories, not all of them pleasant.

Honourable mention: Creeper
Iain Thomson: Creeper was possibly the very first computer virus, although this is contested. It was invented back in 1971 by Bob Thomas, using the Tenex operating system, and used the precursor of the internet, ARPANET, to spread between DEC PDP 10 systems.

To delete the Creeper program another piece of code, Reaper, was created to hunt it down and destroy it. The first anti-virus virus, Reaper was an excellent idea and one that worked well.

Some don’t consider it a virus because it lacked many of the features of modern viruses, but I’m counting it anyway because it was an example of the harmlessness of the early age of computers. Creeper did nothing more than display the message ‘I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!’ No payload, no theft, it was an example of a simpler age.

Shaun Nichols: In computer years, 1971 was nearly prehistoric. No Apple, no Microsoft and the internet was still a wild, far-off concept. Still, in this era where computer programming was a highly-specialised skill, we saw many firsts.

Perhaps a sign of the early times, Creeper’s creator not only released the virus itself, but a cleaning program called Reaper that removed the Creeper code.

Honourable mention: Brain
Iain Thomson: Brain was the first virus written for Microsoft’s DOS operating system, back in 1986. It was originally developed to stop the copying of a medical software program developed by two Pakistani brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi.

Brain spread by floppy disc and copied itself into the boot sector of the media. It displayed the names of the creators, and suggested the infected recipients got in contact to get disinfected.

It spread quickly and the two brothers were inundated with calls from people around the world demanding that their machines were disinfected. Such was the volume of calls that the two eventually had their phone lines cut off.

Shaun Nichols: Remember how much heat Sony took when it used a rootkit as part of its copy-protection software? Well, it turns out Sony wasn’t the first group to make that mistake.

Back in 1986, a pair of developers from Pakistan tried to stop piracy of their biomedical software by including a small snippet of code to track and report possible piracy. That code was soon removed and redistributed as a virus.

This was back in 1986, so the ‘FAIL’ meme had yet to be put into use, but if it had, Brain Computer Services would have no doubt more than earned the tag.

Data Storage

IBM pushes solid state drives to Power servers

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago02 mins

IBM has announced new solid state drive (SSD) products, designed to help firms reduce costs and improve memory response times across its Power hardware platforms.

The firm said that, based on its own testing, it expected to see huge performance boosts in user systems, while the drives would also have a dramatic impact on the physical footprint of storage facilities.

Advertisement”The new offerings can improve performance by up to 800 per cent, while also reducing the physical footprint of the amount of storage needed by approximately 80 per cent, and energy consumption by up to 90 per cent,” IBM said in a statement.

“As it has no moving parts, or spinning disks, such as used in traditional storage, solid-state storage technology can conduct up to 20,000 transfers per second compared to one hard drive disk at approximately 200 data transfers per second.

“IBM is unveiling a more targeted approach than other SSD hardware vendors to implement Flash technology by leveraging and integrating IBM’s hardware, software and research expertise.”

As well as giving users the option to run SSDs on Power systems, the vendor announced software management tools for the technology. These included the IBM Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem and SSD Data Balancer, which it said would let administrators back up and save data to drives on IBM zSeries and DS8000 servers with ease.

IBM said it does not expect SSDs to completely replace other more conventional storage methods, adding that customers would favour hybrid environments using both SSDs and traditional disks.

Data Storage

the Fastest Solid State Disks (SSDs)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago02 mins

You’ll often see news stories that say such and such a manufacturer has launched the “. But how can they all be true?

Sad to relate – but often they are not. Other storage publications – which only have a superficial grasp of this market – publish many claims which are completely wrong because they aren’t aware of the hundreds of other SSD products already available in the market.

Another problem is that many magazine and vendor published SSD benchmarks are unreliable due to halo effects.

If SSD speed is your thing – you’ve come to the right place. However, speed isn’t everything and it comes at a price. But if you need the speediest SSD then wading through the web sites of over 100 current SSD oems to find a suitable candidate slows you down. And the SSD search problem will get worse. I’ve done the research for you to save you time. And this page is updated daily from storage news and direct inputs from oems.

Speed isn’t everything – but it is important. According to the world’s first SSD Buyer Preference Survey – in answer to the question “Why Do People Use Solid State Disks?” – the #1 reason given was – “Application speedup” – cited by 76% SSD buyers.

Data Storage

Seagate Announced Restructuring Plan To Further Reduce Operating Costs

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago02 mins

Seagate Technology announced it has initiated a restructuring plan that includes a reduction of approximately 1,100 employees or 2.5% of the company’s global workforce. This reduction is required to support a targeted run rate of product development and marketing and administrative costs of less than $300 million per quarter and to position the company to be cash flow and earnings positive within its fiscal year 2010.

The restructuring plan, which the company expects to be largely complete by the end of July 2009, is expected to result in total pretax restructuring charges of approximately $72 million. These charges will primarily be incurred in the June 2009 quarter and consist mainly of cash based employee termination costs which are expected to be substantially paid in the September 2009 quarter. The annual savings generated from this restructuring action is expected to be approximately $125 million.

Since the beginning of fiscal year 2009, and including today’s announcement, the company has reduced its global headcount through attrition and restructuring, resulting in a reduction in the company’s labor costs in excess of 25%. In addition, Seagate previously announced the realignment of its organizational structure to increase efficiency, as well as the closures of two recording media facilities and its Pittsburgh research facility, company-wide salary reductions announced in January 2009, and other cost reduction initiatives. Seagate continues to assess options to further reduce manufacturing operating costs.

Data Storage

The Information about Linux Desktop from IBM

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago11 months ago07 mins

21 May 2009: IBM announced the results of a study conducted by the I.T. analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, commissioned by IBM, which showed that Linux desktops were easier to implement than IT staff expected if they targeted the right groups of users, such as those who have moderate and predictable use of e-mail and office tools

The research behind the report, “Linux on the Desktop: Lessons from Mainstream Business Adoption,” was designed, executed and interpreted independently by Freeform Dynamics. Feedback was gathered via an online survey of 1,275 I.T. professionals from the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a spread of other countries across Western Europe and the Nordics. Ninety percent of the study’s respondents had direct experience with desktop Linux deployment in their business.

Those with experience of such migrations said that Linux on the desktop was best achieved when it was first targeted to groups of non-technical users. Transaction workers and general professional workers were seen as more than twice as likely to be primary targets for desktop Linux adoption than mobile and creative staff. A majority of the respondents indicated that Linux desktop deployments to these targeted groups was easier than anticipated.

“Some users care a great deal about their desktop computing environment and may be emotionally or practically wedded to Windows,” said Dale Vile, research director, Freeform Dynamics. “The trick is to avoid getting distracted by these, and focus on the users for whom the PC on their desk is simply a tool to get their job done. Migrating a general professional user who only needs to access a couple of central systems, an email inbox and light word processing is pretty straightforward.”

Key statistics of the study include:

71% of respondents indicated cost reduction as their primary driver for adoption.
35% stated the ease of securing the desktop was another primary driver
32% cited the lowering of overheads associated with maintenance and support in general were factors contributing to the benefit of desktop Linux adoption
Those with experience of Linux desktop rollouts are 50% more likely to regard non-technical users such as general professional users and transaction workers as primary targets for Linux
58% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see general professional users as primary targets
52% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see transaction workers as primary targets.
32% of those with prior experience of a Linux desktop rollout see power users as primary targets.
47% of respondents said usability was the main consideration when evaluating or selecting a desktop Linux distribution for use in a business environment

The study confirmed Linux on the desktop adoption is primarily driven by cost reduction. About twice as many of the respondents cited cost savings over security as the primary driver of why they’d adopt Linux on the desktop. Participants in the study indicated that both environments can be secured adequately — it’s just cheaper to secure a Linux desktop and maintain it that way.

“If a company is a ‘Windows shop,’ at some point it will need to evaluate the significant costs of migrating its base to Microsoft’s next desktop and continuing the defense against virus and other attacks,” said Bob Sutor, vice president of Linux and open source, IBM Software Group. “Savvy IT departments see the Linux desktop as a PC investment that actually saves money during this downturn. We see the recession fueling open source on the desktop.”

The user groups in the study were defined as:

IT operations/support staff
General professional users (relatively light and predictable use of e-mail, office tools, etc)
Transaction workers (mostly using enterprise applications in a routine prescriptive manner)
Other (non-IT) technical staff (e.g. engineers, technical designers/architects)
Office based power users (e.g. finance staff, marketing teams, knowledge workers, etc)
Highly mobile professional users (e.g. sales, roaming managers, etc)
Creative staff (non-engineering, e.g. graphic design)

For more information on IBM, you can visit http://www.ibm.com/think

Data Storage

New Seagate Replica PC Backup Appliance

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago02 mins

Seagate introduced a new backup appliance that completely eliminates the need to manually learn, manage, or dedicate any time to the backup process. The new Seagate® Replica™ backup appliance is a complete PC backup system, which automatically and continuously stores up-to-date copies of everything on a PC, including installed applications, operating system, e-mail, pictures, music, movies, Internet bookmarks and settings. Available in two configurations, the Seagate Replica solution delivers seamless backup for either a single PC or multiple PCs in a household.

The multi-PC version of Seagate Replica backup appliance includes a dock and is available for homes with two or more PCs for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $199.99. A single-PC version of the Seagate Replica is recommended for use with individual laptop or desktop computers and is available for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $129.99. Seagate Replica Backup System will be available in May.

Data Storage

Computer Data Storage Tips

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago03 mins

Successful server recoveries: Preventing further damage when a server goes down

Despite the industry improvements in backup systems or storage array systems, server failures are a common occurrence that can leave a business paralyzed. Whether the failure is hardware-related, software-related, the result of human error or due to a natural disaster, the number of data loss events is increasing as businesses rely on their corporate server structure and document storage volumes.

How to increase the chances of a successful recovery:

• Use a volume defragmenter regularly: A defragmenter moves the pieces of each file or folder to one location on the volume, so that each occupies a single, contiguous space on the disk drive. This helps improve the quality of recovery, making files and folders easier for data recovery specialists to locate. Do not run defragmenter utilities on suspected bad drives – if drives are bad, this could have damaging effects

• Perform a valid backup before making hardware or software changes

• If a drive is making unusual mechanical noises, turn it off immediately and get assistance from your data recovery company

• Before removing drives, label the drives with their original position and RAID array

• Never restore data to the server that has lost the data – always restore to a separate server or alternate location

• In Microsoft Exchange or SQL failures, never try to repair the original information store or database files – make a copy and perform recovery operations on the copy

• When replacing drives on RAID systems, never replace a failed drive with a drive that was part of a previous RAID system – always zero out the replacement drive before using

• In a power loss situation with a RAID array, if the file system looks suspicious, is uncountable or the data is inaccessible after power is restored, do not run volume repair utilities. Do not run volume repair utilities on suspected bad drive

Data Storage

Avoiding storage system failures

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago04 mins

There are many ways to reduce or eliminate the impact of storage system failures. You may not be able to prevent a disaster from happening, but you may be able to minimize the disruption of service to your clients.

There are many ways to add redundancy to primary storage systems. Some of the options can be quite costly and only large business organizations can afford the investment. These options include duplicate storage systems or identical servers, known as ‘mirror sites’. Additionally, elaborate backup processes or file-system ‘snapshots’ that always have a checkpoint to restore to, provide another level of data protection.

Experience has shown there are usually multiple or rolling failures that happen when an organization has a data disaster. Therefore, to rely on just one restoration protocol is shortsighted. A successful storage organization will have multiple layers of restoration pathways.

We has heard thousands of IT horror stories of initial storage failures turning into complete data calamities. In an effort to bring back a system, some choices can permanently corrupt the data. Here are several risk mitigation policies that storage administrators can adopt that will help minimize data loss when a disaster happens:

• Offline storage system: Avoid forcing an array or drive back on-line. There is usually a valid reason for a controller card to disable a drive or array, forcing an array back on-line may expose the volume to file system corruption.

• Rebuilding a failed drive: When rebuilding a single failed drive, it is import to allow the controller card to finish the process. If a second drive fails or go off-line during this process, stop and get professional data recovery services involved. During a rebuild, replacing a second failed drive will change the data on the other drives.

• Storage system architecture: Plan the storage system’s configuration carefully. We have seen many cases with multiple configurations used on a single storage array. For example, three RAID 5 arrays (each holding six drives) are striped in a RAID 0 configuration and then spanned. Keep a simple storage configuration and document each aspect of it.

• During an outage: If the problem escalates up to the OEM technical support, always ask “Is the data integrity at risk?” or, “Will this damage my data in any way?” If the technician says that there may be a risk to the data, stop and get professional data recovery services involved.