I really do not want to ridicule these companies for their pain but the repeated references to last data that I see in the media intrigue me. Therefore I want to start collecting these stories so everyone else can learn from the mistakes made by others.
Hacked flight sim site in catastrophic crash and burn
Avsim.com has the mistaken idea that copying data between servers was the same thing as backing up.
Ma.gnolia Suffers Major Data Loss, Site Taken Offline
Ma.gnolia went down and could not recover their data due to database corruption. They could not recover. They publically stated that their backups were not usable and the extent of their backups has been a firmware synch between machines. The backups had never been tested. Ma.gnolia is in the process of trying to recover. Secondly this is a story that should give you pause when considering outsourcing your services. Do your ASPs back your data up to same standards you would?
Those are the two that come to mind immediately. If you have other links put them in the comments and I'll move them into the article.