Posted on 06/15/2016 2:49:11 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
The U.S. Air Force Lost 12 Years Of Investigations Thanks To A Corrupted Computer File
The U.S. Air Force Inspector General tracks all their investigations on fraud, abuse, and everything else down to office disputes in a database maintained by Lockheed Martin. Now it looks like somebody broke it, destroying data collected since 2004.
Defense One and others are reporting that the USAF lost its records of 100,000 investigations in their Automated Case Tracking System due to some kind of file corruption that neither Lockheed Martin or the Air Force have been able to figure out.
Apparently Lockheed Martin spent two weeks trying to fix the problem before informing the Air Force, but had to own up to their failure when the issue proved insurmountable. The Air Force was said to have been informed on June 6th, and has since requested the help of the Pentagon’s cybersecurity operators as well as private contractors.
Some of the information, like investigations into possible sexual assaults, may have been backed up elsewhere, a service spokeswoman told Defense One, though the entirety of the data was not so safe.
“The Air Force launched an immediate investigation to determine the cause and is aggressively leveraging vendor and DoD capabilities to attempt to recover the lost data and determine the severity of the loss,” read a statement cited by C4ISRNet.
Since ACTS is where all the Air Force Inspector General records regarding “IG complaints, investigations, appeals and Freedom Of Information Act requests” are kept, the service expects “significant delays” in responding to inquires from the Inspector General, Congress and everyone else using the system.
“The Air Force is assessing the immediate impact of the data loss, but at this time we are experiencing significant delays in the processing of inspector general and congressional constituency inquiries,” the service said in a statement cited by Defense One and others.
So far nobody has reported suspicion of intentional disruption, but the investigation is ongoing. Pentagon Air Force Spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Defense One “[W]e’re doing our due diligence and checking out all avenues within the investigation to find out if there’s anything that we’re not aware of.” But regarding malicious intent; “[r]ight now, we don’t have any indication of that.”
If nobody can figure out how to bring the data back, the Air Force Inspector General and its collaborators might be able to comb outlying bases for backups of some things. But obviously the loss of the database will be a significant hinderance to current investigations and future references to any that have taken place since 2004.
Our leaders LEAD and this is the followers FOLLOWING.
If the guys at the very top keep setting examples, is it really ANY surprise that eventually people further down the chain will FOLLOW that example..?
But really:
REAL fairness would be *airmen trainees* also pulling stuff like this.
Venezuelan Air Force here we come?
Sure seems like it.
Something very incompetent or very rotten is going on. Some IT heads should roll, and probably some management’s too.
The Airforce is investigating why they lost the investigations?
Charlie foxtrot.
5.56mm
Along with the files, they lost the information on exactly who the IT operators and managers were. :/
“...lost, with no backup anywhere? Really?”
Doesn’t pass the smell test, does it?
Probably cheaper to get a copy from the Chinese...
Maybe the Wikileaks folks can give them the files.
I certainly believe this.
USAF 70-74
UNIVAC 1050-II
“The U.S. Air Force Inspector General tracks all their investigations on fraud, abuse, and everything else down to office disputes in a database maintained by Lockheed Martin. Now it looks like somebody broke it, destroying data collected since 2004.”
I call BS.
Every database administrator I’ve ever dealt with was absolutely paranoid about doing backups.
* You WILL back up your data on a regular (as in daily) schedule.
* You WILL store copies of backups at an offside facility.
The idea that an organization like the Air Force—at this point in computing history—would lose a database is ludicrous.
Something’s getting covered up here by an intentional destruction of this database. The story that they lost the DB is false.
H1B Jihadi IT Services?
“This is probably purposeful ...”
You are probably correct. Sad.
5.56mm
Was info on Clinton’s Sec. Brown plane crash on there? Case closed. Nothing to see here folks...
You nailed this one.
Important records and data are safely stored as digital files on computers throughout the USA.
Nothing can go wr$%6*&#%$
Nothing can go wr$%6*&#%$
Nothing can go wr$%6*&#%$
I would bet a one year supply of Chick-Fil-A deluze Chicken Sandwiches that there are written procedures in place requiring just that and spelling out in the most minute, excrutiating detail how and when backups are to be done.
If there is one thing the military is good at it is establishing Standard Operating Procedures for every imaginable action and activity.
That leads me to think that previous posters who think it is an intentional inside job are on the right path.
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