Top 10 craziest data breaches

Laptops do not like paint thinners.

They are stronger than a locomotive and even survive blazing flames: Data. Unlike the devices on which they are stored, data can withstand a lot. This is reflected again in the top 10 craziest data losses from the Kroll-Ontrack labs. Whether it's an iPad that fell off a moving train, a smartphone doused in chemicals, or a fried laptop, the data recovery experts say they were able to save all the data despite severe physical damage.

Here are the top 10 craziest data breaches of 2015 from Kroll Ontrack: 

10. sunstroke in the server room (Germany)

A small German company was doing renovation work on its office building - including the server room. In the process, the company's admin discovered one Friday that the tarps covering the server were not reliably keeping out the dust. So he decided to move the server to a room away from the renovation work. But after a very warm and sunny weekend, he found on Monday that none of the employees could log on to the server anymore. The cause was quickly found: A colleague had turned off the air conditioning in the temporary server room to prevent dust from entering. Of course, the server could not cope with this and died of heat exhaustion. The subject matter experts were able to recover 99% of the data.

9. life support (Poland)

In Poland, a customer was actually still using his Amiga 600 - which, after all, came onto the market in 1992. But one day, this PC oldie actually also succumbed to old age and ceased operation - completely without accident or human error. Again, the Amiga could even be given a new lease of life. Because for the customer, the antique computer was more than just a machine - it was full of childhood memories.

8. Murphy's Law (Norway)

A private user in Norway actually did everything right. After a data loss, he brought his defective hard drive to an IT specialist. But while the old hard disk was being cloned onto a backup drive, something happened: the company's cleaning staff dropped the disk - and it was then broken for good. But the IT expert acted quickly and sent the disk directly to the specialists. Thus, despite an acute case of "Murphy's Law", at least 98.9% of the data could still be saved.

7. and daily greets the groundhog (Poland)

The Polish data recovery experts at Kroll Ontrack had a big case of déjà vu this year. This was because a RAID server with 22 drives, which had already been recovered earlier, was again delivered to the lab with a data loss. The reason for the repeated data loss: the customer had simply continued to use the supposedly working drives after the first recovery. So one thing led to another: No backup (again), the server crashed (again), and the drives were sent to the data recovery expert (again). And the moral of the story: don't use a possibly broken system.

6. diluted data (Poland)

"I spilled paint thinner all over my laptop. I'm already on my way to you!" With these words, a customer announced himself. The latter had accidentally emptied paint thinner all over his laptop while trying to mix a special wall paint for his wife. The device didn't survive, but fortunately the data did, thanks to his quick reaction - 100% could be saved.

5. hot-blooded temperament (USA)

Some people throw dishes when they get angry, but one American woman preferred to take her notebook. As expected, it didn't take the impact against the wall and then the floor very well. Nevertheless, the data recovery experts were able to save all the data.

4. the lawnmower man strikes (GB)

The fact that the British attach great importance to well-kept lawns is well known, not least thanks to the sacred green at Wimbledon. But one customer took gardening a bit too seriously. While mowing his lawn, he ran over his smartphone, which had fallen out of his pocket.

3. iPad Murder on the Orient Express (GB)

We've known that trains can be a dangerous place since Agatha Christy and Hercule Poirot. But electronic devices also live dangerously on rails. A British man accidentally dropped his iPad from a moving train - in the middle of nowhere. Although the tablet was surprisingly recovered, it was badly damaged and no longer usable. The touch surface was destroyed and no longer responded to inputs, and the display, battery and Lightning connector were badly affected. But most serious for a data recovery: due to an electronic error, the device restarted every two minutes. This meant that data rescuers only had a window of a few seconds at a time to recover data. Nevertheless, 100% of the data could ultimately be recovered.

2. iPhone beautification (Italy)

An Italian woman was busy removing her makeup at the end of the day. In the process, she accidentally knocked over her makeup lotion - which, of course, flowed right over her iPhone. The combination of chemicals and liquid meant that the device would no longer start, so only the data rescuers could help. During the phone call with the hotline, the lady kept emphasizing that the cleaning lotion was from a very well-known cosmetics brand. And indeed - thanks to the experts' know-how (and the high quality of the lotion?), the data was completely saved.

1. fire is extinguished by water - but so is data (GB)

When all the data is on a laptop, there is no backup, and the device is first destroyed by a house fire and then flooded by the sprinkler system, it's fair to call it a bad day. This is exactly what happened to a user in the UK. But even though the device had the consistency of a steak - well-done and nice and juicy at the same time - the data rescuers were able to recover 100% of the data.