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Ask Slashdot: Protecting Data From a Carrington Event?

Posted by timothy on from the managed-to-save-the-kids-and-the-games dept.

kactusotp writes "I run a small indie game company, and since source code is kind of our lifeblood, I'm pretty paranoid about backups. Every system has a local copy, servers run from a RAID 5 NAS, we have complete offsite backups, backup to keyrings/mobile phones, and cloud backups in other countries as well. With all the talk about solar flares and other such near-extinction events lately, I've been wondering: is it actually possible to store or protect data in such a way that if such an event occurred, data survives and is recoverable in a useful form? Optical and magnetic media would probably be rendered useless by a large enough solar flare, and storing source code/graphics in paper format would be impractical to recover, so Slashdot, short of building a Faraday cage 100 km below the surface of the Moon, how could you protect data to survive a modern day Carrington event?"

6 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Don't panic! by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    First step is to stop listening to the hype. Yes it would be bad for the large power distribution infrastructure but no solar flare is going to erase optical discs that doesn't also wipe out most life on the planet. It isn't going to erase hard drives that aren't destroyed by the power events that happen in the first few minutes. So a copy in your safe will still be readable. Remember, the safe is metal and entirely enclosed. In other words it is a Faraday Cage. I really don't know how flash memory will react to a strong electro-magnetic field but my money on it also surviving so long as it isn't connected to anything when the balloon goes up. Kinda hard to induce much of a voltage across nanoscale features. And these observations also apply to an EMP attack.

    It things really get bad you might have trouble finding a working system to connect that backup to and electricity to start it up with but if it gets that bad you won't be worrying about the source code to some damned game, you will be worried about God, Gold and Guns at that point.

    While making those elaborate plans to protect your data you might also want to take a few precautions to ensure you are there to need that data when the dust settles. Do you have a bug out bag? Is it fresh? Do you have an escape plan? Odds are that if you are an indie game dev you live in one of the hives where venture capital can be found and everyone there is toast within days; the trucks stop rolling when the gas pumps stop working, the shelves empty and canibalism begins. Do you have a destination in mind? Do you have a few days of survival supplies stashed to allow you a chance to get to it?

    --
    Democrat delenda est
    1. Re:Don't panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are correct about flash memory not being particularly vulnerable to EM. I work in data sterilization and modern degaussers that are used by a lot of government agencies to nuke their hard drives are completely ineffective on solid-state drives.

    2. Re:Don't panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      According to Wikipedia, a storm of this magnitude happens only once every 500 years or so.

      Since one just happened about a hundred years back, the question is largely irrelevant.

      While you're reading Wikipedia, look up "Gambler's fallacy". The fact that such an event occurred relatively recently has no effect on the probability that will happen in the near future.

    3. Re:Don't panic! by rgbrenner · · Score: 5, Informative

      aluminum substrate to write on

      No. that's not right at all. The aluminum is only used as a reflective layer. A CDR/DVDR is:

      1. printed label/printable surface
      2. aluminum
      3. dye
      4. clear plastic substrate

      On a blank disc the laser goes through the dye and is reflected by the aluminum.

      When the laser writes to the disc, it (basically) burns the dye.

      When the burnt area is read by the laser, it is not reflected back by the aluminum. (so now you have 1s and 0s)

  2. Least of your worries by hairykrishna · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only mechanism I can think of which would case a solar flare to render optical disks unreadable would be radiation damage. A solar flare which delivered that kind of dose would likely wipe out all life on earth so you probably wouldn't be worrying about your backups.

    --
    "Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
  3. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Punch Cards.