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Computer: Backup
Twin Backbone   (+1)  [vote for, against]
Emergence Science based backup system for network data and infrastructure

Following a cyber attack today a hospital in Israel practically closed down. They have to fix the problem and restart all systems which can take days.

We were taught in biology classes that sexual reproduction has an evolutionary explanation and purpose of creating diverse offspring so that an attack on one individual or group will not affect the others.

So what we need is a system that evolves all the time in parallel to the current system of networking and computing infrastructure along with the data and the programs using it. All this should have a twin. Like a twin, it is not exactly the same as the original but it can function similarly and give a good fight while they are bringing the old system hopefully back up.

The way it works and the reason it works is because with Twin Backbone technology there is no single system running everything anymore. There are always two, and they switch focus from one to the other every once in a while. Preferably within minutes.

There are two networks and two PCs running your hospital software with two different programs, one mimicking the other, but they are not the same hardware nor the same operating system. At any given moment one of the two is at the front, but always 1 step behind there's always a shadow ready to spring into action and already loaded with the correct software to respond to the situation and an emergency data backup from a few minutes or hours before the crash.
-- pashute, Aug 08 2023

It's going to cost over twice as much. That's going to be a hard sell.
-- Loris, Aug 08 2023


Yes double the cost was my thought too.

There must be an architecture that gives this redundancy without the double cost though
-- pocmloc, Aug 08 2023


And either the doctor has to enter all the information twice (and somehow avoid mismatches developing between the two systems), or the systems need to be connected and share data, which degrades the hacker resistance of two isolated systems.
-- scad mientist, Aug 08 2023


Not exactly; this is heterogeneous redundancy.
-- pertinax, Aug 09 2023


The necessary sharing of data between the two systems, combined with their heterogeneity, may trigger a sort of auto-immune problem.
-- pertinax, Aug 09 2023


//the doctor has to enter all the information twice//

Or have two doctors?
-- pocmloc, Aug 09 2023


//Preferably within minutes// - ha! - back in the 90's I was part of teams putting in place trading floor systems with multiple systems and redundancy so good that if servers or networks failed the failover would be within a fraction of a second and no one would notice. I think this is WKTE [marked-for-deletion] - using different hardware and operating systems on redundant systems is also WKTE.

I was hoping this idea was for actual redundant backbones, so that in the event of a catastrophic accident and back injury a person would be less likely to be paralysed.
-- hippo, Aug 09 2023


//I was hoping this idea was for actual redundant backbones//

Me too. Could be like teeth, and a backup backbone is continuously growing where stress is felt. I've got a perfect place for a test run. I'm sitting on it.

What if we went back to cartilage? High tech cartilage and no bone at all? Rubberman? [+ for discussion]
-- minoradjustments, Aug 10 2023


// I was hoping this idea was for actual redundant backbones //

Yep, me too also.

There are a few badly designed bits on the human frame, particularly the neck, balancing that huge brain-carrying melon. No idea how to rectify that internally, so I was hoping this Idea contained a clever mechanism of reinforcement, or instructions to lay down a new spinal track* in the event of an emergency.

*Spinal Tap joke pending
-- Sgt Teacup, Aug 10 2023


//lay down a new spinal track// - just make sure you don't confuse ' and "
-- hippo, Aug 10 2023


So... a RAID array with multiple server racks?
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 10 2023



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