DANA has been one of the worst catastrophes that has hit our country. And much of the blame for everything that has happened, both for not being prepared, and for not notifying people in time and for sending aid as late as possible, lies with the governments. Many people have lost absolutely everything, from family lives to cars, houses, businesses, etc. And, as expected, many have also lost all data on electronic devices: servers, hard drives, etc.
Although the government does nothing other than take advantage of the misfortune to engage in demagoguery, this catastrophe has awakened the people who, faced with the abandonment of those at the top, have decided to do everything they can to help the people. In addition to the volunteers who are doing commendable work, helping people on the streets, removing debris and distributing food, other initiatives have also been opened to help people.
On this occasion, if you have knowledge about data recovery, you can help both people and companies recover their most important data.
How to collaborate voluntarily
They have opened a website, informatica.ayuda-dana.es, from which we can sign up to help all those companies that have lost everything, and that will surely end up closing, to recover their most important files. If you have questions, you can contact those responsible for this initiative through the email “ayuda-dana@protonmail.com”.
To collaborate, what we have to do specifically from the website is sign up in the form enabled for this purpose with the following information:
- Full name of the person or volunteer.
- How we are going to provide help (physically, logically, etc.).
- Purchasing capacity for recovery material.
- Availability.
- Contact email.
- Notes or other information.
What they are looking for with this initiative is to find people who can help both evaluate the damage to the storage units and decide the best strategy for their recovery, as well as implement the appropriate recovery techniques and coordinate the task among everyone.
Obviously, this type of help is not for everyone, since it requires advanced professional tools, both software and hardware (depending on the type of damage the units have) and very high knowledge of both data recovery and technology and cybersecurity. But, if you meet the requirements, both on a personal level and if you have a computer company that can help with this recovery, your help will be crucial so that companies that are about to close can avoid bankruptcy.
How to ask for help
If you are one of the companies affected by DANA and you need to try to recover your data, you can request help from the same website that we have linked in the previous point. There is a form where they will ask us for all the company data so we can start as soon as possible with the most appropriate strategy to recover the data.
We also have a slideshow in which we can find the first steps to try to recover the data. In this presentation they explain to us that:
- We should never connect devices (servers, computers, etc.) that have become wet.
- If the computer was turned off when it got wet, it is likely that you can recover the data with expert companies.
- We have to remove the hard drives from the devices and equipment, and put them in rice to dry out as much moisture as possible.
- Package the hard drives very well protected so that we can send them to the centers assigned to us so that the volunteers can start working.
This is an initiative in which INCIBE, CN-CERT and the Civil Guard, among other entities, collaborate, so they take the privacy of the data that may be handled very seriously.
