(credit: Alpha six ) Cloud backup and storage provider Backblaze has published its latest batch of drive reliability data. The release covers failure information for the 70,000 disks that the company uses to store some 250PB of data. This is the first quarter that Backblaze has been using a reasonable number of new 8TB disks: 45 from HGST and 2720 from Seagate. Drives from both companies are showing comparable annualized failure rates: 3.2 percent for HGST, 3.3 percent for Seagate. While the smaller HGST drives show better reliability, with annualized failure rates below one percent for the company’s 4TB drives, the figures are typical for Seagate, which Backblaze continues to prefer over other alternatives due to Seagate’s combination of price and availability. Annualized failure rates for all of Backblaze’s drives. (credit: Backblaze) But it’s still early days for the 8TB drives. While evidence for the phenomenon is inconclusive, hard drive reliability is widely assumed to experience a “bathtub curve” when plotting its failure rate against time: failure rates are high when the drives are new (due to “infant mortality” caused by drives that contain manufacturing defects) and when the drives reach their expected lifetime (due to the accumulated effects of wear and tear), with a period of several years of low failure rates in the middle. If the bathtub theory is correct, Backblaze’s assortment of 8TB drives should suffer fewer failures in the future. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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8TB disks seem to work pretty well, HGST still impressive
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: A listing was published today on TheRealDeal Dark Web marketplace claiming to be offering data on over 200 million Yahoo users, sold by the same hacker that was behind the LinkedIn, Tumblr, MySpace, and VK data dumps. In statements to Softpedia, Yahoo said it was investigating the breach, but based on the seller’s reputation, it is very likely the data is authentic. The data is up for sale for 3 Bitcoin (approximately ~$1, 800), and based on the sample the hacker provided, the data dump includes details such as usernames, MD5-hashed passwords, and dates of birth for all users. For some records, there is also a backup email address, country of origin, and ZIP code for U.S. users. The hacker, called Peace, has also told Softpedia that he previously made $50, 000 from the LinkedIn breach alone, and over $65, 000 in total from all breaches. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes: Washington State has filed a lawsuit against Comcast to the sum of $100 million, accusing Comcast of “engaging in a pattern of deceptive practices.” It claims that Comcast’s documents reveal a pattern of illegally deceiving its own customers for profit. KOMO News reports: “The lawsuit (PDF) alleges more than 1.8 million individual violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act. The Attorney General’s Office says 500, 000 Washington consumers were affected. The lawsuit also accuses Comcast of violating the Consumer Protection Act to all of its nearly 1.2 million Washington subscribers due to its deceptive ‘Comcast Guarantee, ‘ Ferguson said. The lawsuit accuses Comcast of misleading 500, 000 Washington consumers and deceiving them into paying at least $73 million in subscription fees over the last five years for what the attorney general says is a a near-worthless protection plan. Customers who sign up for Comcast’s Service Protection Plan pay a $4.99 monthly fee to avoid being charged if a Comcast technician visits their home. But the plan did not cover wiring inside a wall, the lawsuit says. The Attorney General Office says 75 percent of the time, customers who contacted Comcast were told the plan covered inside wiring. Customer service scripts, which the Attorney General’s Office said it obtained during its investigation, told Comcast representatives to say that the plan covers calls ‘related to inside wiring’ and ‘wiring inside your home.'” According to KOMO News, the lawsuit is seeking more than $73 million in restitution to pay back Service Protection Plan subscriber payments; full restitution for all service calls that applied an improper resolution code, estimated to be at least $1 million; removal of improper credit checks from the credit reports of more than 6, 000 customers; up to $2, 000 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act; and that Comcast clearly disclose the limitations of its Service Protection Plan in advertising and through its representatives, correct improper service codes that should not be chargeable and implement a compliance procedure for improper customer credit checks. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
