Technician Accidentally Deletes an Account Worth $38 Billion

Spam. Delete. Spam. Delete. Spam. Delete. Spam. Delete. Spam. Delete. Sp- OH SHIT! That's what this guy must have thought hahaha.

Perhaps you've experienced that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing an account worth $38 billion.

That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account -- one of Alaska residents' biggest perks -- and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.

There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense had failed: backup tapes were unreadable.

Pretty sucky for Alaska. One thing I wonder though is how the heck does one delete the data, AND the backup, AND what're the chances that the tape backups don't work LOL.

Via CNN and Kathy.