What is a file — CCA-F Exam Prep

L0.17✨ 0

REAL STORY A smartphone screen showing a photo gallery, a messaging app, and a music player. Tiny labels float above each: 'file', 'file', 'file'. Dozens of them. Clean, modern illustration.

A smartphone screen showing a photo gallery, a messaging app, and a music player. Tiny labels float above each: 'file', 'file', 'file'. Dozens of them. Clean, modern illustration.

In 2014, a British bank lost 1.3 million customer records because of one letter.

A backup process saved customer files to a folder called /temp. The cleanup script was supposed to delete /tmp -- a different folder. But someone configured it to delete /temp instead. One letter difference. 1.3 million records, gone.

The files existed. The backup worked. The data was safe. Until a script pointed at the wrong location and erased everything. Remember from L0.01 -- computers follow instructions literally. The instruction said /temp, so /temp was destroyed.