Data loss feeds conflict

ICT4Peace references an article in the Guardian on the recovery of data from doomed space shuttle Columbia, and rightly criticises this statement:

But doesn’t it prove that you can get your data back from pretty much anything?

No, of course it doesn’t, despite the remarkable feat achieved on this occasion. Sanjana Hattotuwa of ICT4Peace concludes his post with this intriguing thought:

The point here is simple. Data loss creates and exacerbates conflict. In a context of violent ethno-political conflict and with many fragile peacebuilding processes at play, data loss can often not just be catastrophic, it can be positively life threatening.

Backup.

This sounds entirely reasonable to me, and I’m posting this as a reminder to self to think about this some more. In particular, whether and how conflicts might be prosecuted over data itself.

I haven’t had a good look around Sanjana’s blog but there seems to be a lot of good stuff worthy of further reading.