BINGO!!!!!
The worst thing that could happen to an IT company that manages a server for a customer would be to lose that data. If that happened not one customer would trust them with their data and they would terminate their contract the next morning.
If there was no backup made, why? Were you contracted by your customer not to make a backup or is your company simply incompetent.
The server was apparently up and running recently. Why and how was it wiped (reformated)? Who wiped it?
I work in a hospital and all our data is stored on servers. It is stored on multiple servers so if one goes down the system remains up and running seemlessly. All the data is also stored on backup magnetic tapes. We can lose a server and we do not even realize as the system keeps going. If we had a catastrophic accident in the computer room that destroyed all the serves we would be shut down. All the data could be restored from magnetic tapes but it would be a long process but it could and would be done.
ps If this is publically traded company I would suggest stockholders sell tomorrow morning.
It was wiped useing military wipe tech. It just means writing random stuff all over the disk many times. Tech is odd tho, as is magnetism. A faint trace of what it was is left. Read it enough times as 1 or 0 with your detector being at the barely level, you can see what was there. Faint traces remain. The FBI has people that do this for food. It is also why I never resell hard drives. To the shredder thanks, after I drill a couple of holes though the platters.
I’ve been amazed at how many simple questions haven’t been asked by the press. Ed Henry tried once, and she replied with a silly statement asking if he meant did she wipe the server with a cloth.
But still, you would think the reporters would ask their own IT departments or other email server companies what questions should be asked.
"Were you contracted to administer the server or did you merely co-locate a box administered by another party?"
If the latter, "Who is the other party?"