More Missing Email

Alright, I admit it. This blog’s fascination with disaster is beginning to seem a bit obsessive. I apologize, but there is just so much of it. Its hard to resist.

Today’s story, from the AP,  is the tale of Charter Communication and the accidental erasure of the contents of 14,000 email accounts. That’s right . . . 14,000 accounts. The event, which was apparently a simple mistake in routine maintenance, erased every email, every attachment . . . everything. In 14,000 accounts.

Ouch.

It gets worse. According to a spokeswoman for the company, there is no way to retrieve any of the information that was inadvertently deleted. This enormous communication company, with accounts across the country, does not have a backup policy to protect its users from itself.

The company claims it is taking steps to assure that this never happens again. I would suggest a less optimistic approach wherein they take steps to make sure that when it does happen again (which it will in some form) they can retrieve the lost data.

I feel badly for those who lost important data in this event.  No doubt countless, irreplaceable communications boiled into the ether. I urge everyone using a free email account to take a lesson from this and find a way to save and archive those emails. This sort of accident occurs regularly. While the scale of this particular incident makes it a rarity, the events themselves are not uncommon.

I will do a little research on the topic, so look for some tips on how to backup your free email account in the near future.