A WorkCover spokesperson confirmed to Computerworld that the Workers Compensation Commission server, located in Sydney, experienced a failure on March 27 but it did not affect any data held by WorkCover on workers compensation claims.

"The server failure did not affect WorkCover's main computer center at Gosford (one hour north of Sydney)," the spokesperson said, adding there is no need for people to re-submit workers compensation claims.

"Over 98 percent of the data lost was retrieved within nine working days," he said. "The remaining less than 2 percent is being retrieved on a case-by-case needs basis."

The data was contained on the system's S: and H: drives, used for "common administrative, procedures, and correspondence" and "personal" information, respectively.

The exact cause of the server failure, or the data backup tools and procedures used, were not revealed by the authority.