It was a close call this week for the US Air Force after it nearly lost more than 100,000 records dating back to 2004.

The Air Force's Automated Case Tracking System (ACTS) suffered a database corruption that deleted files it was using to investigate a wide range of possible waste and abuse. Initially, the agency told Ars Technica it had "kind of exhausted everything we can to recover" the data, and was looking to "outside experts to see if they can help."

It appears those efforts paid off. "After aggressively leveraging all vendor and department capabilities, the Air Force made a full recovery of the Automated Case Tracking System database, the Air Force inspector general system of record for all records related to IG complaints, investigations, and appeals," the Air Force said in a statement.

ACTS houses investigations into possible abuse, Freedom of Information Act requests, and even whistleblower reports. It's not, in other words, something the Air Force wants to lose.

"Although the brief data loss caused some delays in processing IG inquiries, the recovery allows the service to move forward with minimal impact," it said today. "The Air Force has no technical indicators to believe that the loss was the result of any malicious activity."

Related North Korea Nabs US Fighter Jet Blueprints in Hack

The news comes one day after the Democratic National Committee revealed that it was breached, reportedly at the hands of Russian hackers.

Further Reading

Security Reviews