Web Hosting Company Deleted using "rm -rf"

bigredseo

bigredseo

HD Community Advisor
Staff member
I'm surprised nobody was talking about this here. I read about it the other day, but here's the run down.

A person running a hosting company (about 1500 clients), typed "rm -rf" and using a script, pushed it out to all of his servers. In one line of code, he just deleted ALL user accounts. The genius also has that "push script" linked to his backups machines - so he not only deleted all sites, but then deleted all client backups too.

Here's a link to the story - http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...mpany-with-one-line-of-bad-code-a6984256.html

I feel really bad for the guy. Back when I had my hosting company, I executed "rm -rf ./" I think it was on one of my machines. The only thing different is that I did it on a non-public facing machine, so it wasn't as catastrophic. I've used the "rm-rf" so many times over the years, but for some reason I was in the ROOT of the server that one time.

An expensive lesson for Marco Marsala, the person who executed the command for his company, and quite possibly even the end of his business.
 
Incredible, if it were true. Independent just updated their story that the post by the guy turned out to be a joke. Missed the April Fools' by a bit. :D
 
Man I am so glad that this was not real. I think I would felt bad for the clients and prey that they had backups.
 
Yeah, that would have been one heck of an April Fools Joke. I saw the same story on MSN News early this morning and was like, "Whaaaat?!"
 
He did it for advertising, but would not host my data on a web hosting company that does not have at least an offsite backup or hosts all clients on one server.
 
Though he did this for marketing, doesn’t it trigger his customer to expect a similar situation in the near future? And if his customers thought the same way I thought, then would it have ruined his plan and affect the business badly?
 
He might have attracted the attention BUT I think that many clients will take him seriously and will think he is not knowledgeable enough not to do it on another occasion. I hope it doesnt affect his business.
 
This was definitely outed as a viral marketing stunt to promote his web hosting company. Although I question if pretending to do your job poorly is a way to get new business.
 
It is a hoax, I read the guy was starting another startup (not sure if it is hosting related) and this got him some great coverage.

As for 123-Reg, that is unfortunate ha.
 
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