JournalSpace Fails to Backup Customer Data

JournalSpace is Dead. Long Live JournalSpace.

In January of this year the unthinkable happened to JournalSpace, the small blog hosting company. For reasons that remain somewhat unclear, they did not keep a proper backup of their users' blogs. Then, one day, 14,000 accounts going back for 6 years were wiped out. The business closed for ever. A rookie mistake to be sure, but we're talking about a six year old business!

The old JournalSpace is no more. The domain was transferred to new owners, who have managed to round up a few hundred users. What a shame.

Six years of writing - potentially millions of posts - were lost because nobody had a basic backup scheme, despite the fact that the existence of the business depended on keeping the customers' data safe.

The moral of this story is clear: You can't assume that your service provider maintains a proper backup. If your data is valuable, you must take steps protect it yourself.