On Fri, 5 Feb 2016 18:33:44 +0100
Didier Kryn <kryn@???> wrote:

>      People have always expected rm -rf / to destroy the OS. They
> also know that, from the keyboard, with root priviledge, they can
> destroy the partition table of the disk. All this is repairable by
> the admin her/himself.

>

>      The ability to brick the motherboard is brand new. 

Not only brand new, but an entirely new level of consequence.

With excellent backups, rm -rf / or even dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 is
correctable with a few hours of work, on the premises, with only
resources on the premises.

Bricking the mobo means buying a new mobo, and in all likelihood a
whole computer. Unless the mobo is still being sold, this means a brand
new hardware cost/benefit analysis. If you don't live near a good
computer store, it could mean mail order, with the several days'
shipping and the RMA nonsense, while your business languishes. I could
see an rm -rf causing a business to be down for a couple weeks,
complete with angry threats and counterthreats between business and
computer vendor.

Anybody who's ever had to buy a computer to fix a current outage,
instead of as a planned process, knows you're going to get an inferior
computer for an inflated price, and incur the kind of pressure that
makes mistakes more probable. It's not a whole lot different than
having to buy a car tonight because your old car blew up this afternoon
and you'll get fired if you don't drive to work tomorrow.

With a well backed up machine, there is absolutely no comparison
between loss of the system disk formatting and bricking of the mobo.

> Therefore
> admins should be seriously protected and warned against this
> eventuality, at least until it percolates into the general culture.

Yes.


SteveT

Steve Litt
February 2016 featured book: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key