“ING Bank’s main data center in Bucharest, Romania, was severely damaged over the weekend during a fire extinguishing test. In what is a very rare but known phenomenon, it was the loud sound of inert gas being released that destroyed dozens of hard drives. The site is currently offline and the bank relies solely on its backup data center, located within a couple of miles’ proximity.
‘The drill went as designed, but we had collateral damage’, ING’s spokeswoman in Romania told me, confirming the inert gas issue. Local clients were unable to use debit cards and to perform online banking operations on Saturday between 1PM and 11PM because of the test. ‘Our team is investigating the incident,’ she said.”
Source: A Loud Sound Just Shut Down a Bank’s Data Center for 10 Hours | Motherboard
