Technician wipes out $38 billion fund info

JUNEAU – Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work.

Now imagine wiping out a disc drive containing an account worth $38 billion. A computer technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue deleted applicant information for an oil-funded sales account -one of state residents’ biggest perks.While reformatting the disk drive during a routine maintenance check, the technician mistakenly reformatted the backup drive as well and, suddenly, all the data disappeared.A third line of defence – backup tapes that are updated nightly – were unreadable.”Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario,” said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow, about the computer foul-up in July that ended up costing the department more than $200 000.Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800 000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence.The only backup was the paperwork itself – stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.Staff working overtime and weekends re-entered the lost data into the system by the end of August.Last October and November, they met their obligation to the public and a majority of the estimated 600 000 payments for last year’s $1 106,96 individual dividends went out on schedule.Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was blamed in the incident.According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure.Nampa-APA computer technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue deleted applicant information for an oil-funded sales account -one of state residents’ biggest perks.While reformatting the disk drive during a routine maintenance check, the technician mistakenly reformatted the backup drive as well and, suddenly, all the data disappeared.A third line of defence – backup tapes that are updated nightly – were unreadable.”Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario,” said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow, about the computer foul-up in July that ended up costing the department more than $200 000.Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800 000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence.The only backup was the paperwork itself – stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.Staff working overtime and weekends re-entered the lost data into the system by the end of August.Last October and November, they met their obligation to the public and a majority of the estimated 600 000 payments for last year’s $1 106,96 individual dividends went out on schedule.Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was blamed in the incident.According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure.Nampa-AP