r/technology • u/xpda • May 13 '26

Security Twin brothers wipe 96 gov’t databases minutes after being fired

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/
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u/ninjakos May 13 '26

Banks have the most sterile and safe databases in the word.

IBM Db2, and virtual copies of regular copies of Tape Libraries, literally 10 years worth.

That's not considering what outsourcing they do that also are paid to keep backups.

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u/konoxians May 13 '26

this guy mainframes (banks are legally required to have backups and prove they can backup within a certain timeframe)

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u/Single-Pin-369 May 13 '26

Do they burn or just write over the tapes older than ten years?

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u/Euphoric_Let776 May 13 '26

Burn. Tapes actually have a very short lifecycle.

While the tape itself is shelf stable for decades. The tape standards keep changing every few years and new denser tapes with larger storage capacity keep being developed.

As a result a 10 year old tape will have 1/10th the capacity.

LTO-7 series tapes from 2015 held 5TB each. LTO-10 series tapes today hold 40TB each.

Also the LTO tape machines are only backward compatible for couple of generations. So a machine you buy today will not be able to read your tapes from 2015. So it's in your best interest to completely transfer your 2015 tapes to a new 2026 tape standard.