PBS station fears losing 50TB of data after being ghosted by cloud storage provider - Ars Technica

Overview

PBS station fears losing 50TB of data after being ghosted by cloud storage provider

“We don’t have access to the data on the hardware/servers,” Iron Mountain told Ars.

Details

After its cloud storage provider went defunct, a PBS affiliate decided to sue a data center provider to regain access to 50TB of TV shows, videos, and other data dating back 70 years.

As reported this week by Current, a trade newspaper covering public broadcasting, St. Louis affiliate Nine PBS filed a lawsuit against Iron Mountain Data Centers on July 28, seeking access to the data. In the litigation filed in Denver District Court, Nine PBS says that its cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage (OSS), used one of Iron Mountain’s Denver data centers to store the channel’s data. However, OSS is being unresponsive, and Nine PBS says Iron Mountain has refused to release its data.

The data in question includes the station’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, East St. Louis’ history, The Great Flood of 1993, and over 11,000 files, the Denver Post reported in July. The lawsuit claims that “most” of the data is “unique and irreplaceable,” according to the Post.

Last month, a judge blocked Iron Mountain from deleting or modifying the data.

In a hearing on Wednesday, a judge ruled that Iron Mountain must hand over any physical devices holding the data, Current reported today. The judge also said that Nine PBS must find a third party, such as a former OSS worker, who can help retrieve the data within 30 days and without sharing or corrupting data belonging to other OSS clients.

Nine PBS is already communicating with a former OSS employee “who is willing to help,” the report said. If complications arise, such as from the data being encrypted, another hearing will be scheduled. Nine PBS and Iron Mountain must provide updates by September 14.

When reached for comment, an Iron Mountain spokesperson told Ars Technica via email:

Iron Mountain has acted appropriately and responsibly at every step to safeguard customer data and honor our contractual commitments to OSS. Throughout this process, we have been transparent with Nine PBS about our role in this dispute, that we do not have access to their data, and we have made consistent efforts to help them resolve the issue.

Iron Mountain has acted appropriately and responsibly at every step to safeguard customer data and honor our contractual commitments to OSS. Throughout this process, we have been transparent with Nine PBS about our role in this dispute, that we do not have access to their data, and we have made consistent efforts to help them resolve the issue.

According to the complaint, Nine PBS initially hired a company, eventually known as OSS, for “hardware, software, and cloud storage services” for its data, including archival materials.

Nine PBS’ most recent contract with OSS ended on March 6. Nine PBS says it couldn’t get a response from OSS about renewing the contract in February. The station claims its contract gave it 30 days to retrieve data at the end of the contract. However, Nine PBS says it abruptly lost access to the data when the contract expired. The channel says it then learned that OSS had delinquency status with the Colorado Secretary of State and had ceased operations. As of this writing, the Colorado Secretary of State’s business database says that OSS formed in 2021 and is delinquent.

James Tramel, who the complaint describes as a “managing partner of the group that officially acquired” OSS’ assets, reportedly told Nine PBS that Iron Mountain held its data. Eventually, Tramel reportedly stopped responding to Nine PBS after telling the station via phone that he “had been defrauded” into buying OSS and was no longer affiliated with the company.

On March 13, Nine PBS reportedly sent a letter to Iron Mountain stating that it would “pay any reasonable costs associated with” accessing the data.

After allegedly being unable to communicate with OSS, Nine PBS eventually won a default judgment against the company in the St. Louis Circuit Court, which found that Nine PBS had the “immediate right to possess the data,” according to the complaint. The court also ruled that OSS must return the data “and/or facilitate its transfer to a new vendor,” the complaint says.

However, Iron Mountain refused to give Nine PBS the data because it only has a contract with OSS and, according to Nine PBS’ complaint, because OSS owns “the physical services housing the data.”

Iron Mountain’s spokesperson told Ars that the company only provides physical infrastructure, such as the building, network connectivity, power, and environmental controls.

“Our customers rent space for their servers and other hardware. These are the client’s assets. We don’t have access to the data on the hardware/servers because they belong to our customers,” the company said.

Iron Mountain said the company would violate basic data privacy protocols, breach its contract with OSS, and “potentially [expose] confidential data belonging to other clients of OSS” if it granted “unauthorized access to third-party hardware without a court order.”

Ars asked Nine PBS if it has any backups of the data and what the station will do to prevent this from happening again, but we didn’t receive answers as of publication time.

Nine PBS VP and chief communications officer Leah Freeman shared a statement reading:

We appreciate the Court’s thoughtful decision establishing a path forward to access and recover our archival materials, which the Court confirmed that Nine PBS rightfully owns. These archives represent an important part of our region’s history, and we look forward to ensuring their preservation and protection through the Court-approved process.

We appreciate the Court’s thoughtful decision establishing a path forward to access and recover our archival materials, which the Court confirmed that Nine PBS rightfully owns. These archives represent an important part of our region’s history, and we look forward to ensuring their preservation and protection through the Court-approved process.

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Key Takeaways

• PBS station fears losing 50TB of data after being ghosted by cloud storage provider

• “We don’t have access to the data on the hardware/servers,” Iron Mountain told Ars

• After its cloud storage provider went defunct, a PBS affiliate decided to sue a data center provider to regain access to 50TB of TV shows, videos, and other data dating back 70 years

• As reported this week by Current, a trade newspaper covering public broadcasting, St

• The data in question includes the station’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, East St