After fixing offline uncorrectable sector warning email, I have taken a closer look at my /etc/smartd.conf, and now it looks like this:

DEFAULT -d sat -H -f -p -t -W 0,40,45 -n standby -S on -m example@example.com
# Attributes 1, 230, and 231 are very important (-r 1! -r 230! -R 230! -r 231! -R 231!), but likely covered by -t.
/dev/sda -s (S/../../6/01|L/../(01|02|03|04|05|06|07)/7/00) -C 0 -I 189 -I 194
# -a implies -f and -p (through -t)
DEFAULT -d sat -a -I 194 -W 0,40,45 -n standby -o on -S on -m example@example.com
/dev/sdb -s (S/../../6/02|L/../(01|02|03|04|05|06|07)/7/02)
# This drive does not decrement Offline_Uncorrectable (198) after re-allocation,
# so only monitoring for increase, not for non-zero value.
/dev/sdc -s (S/../../6/03|L/../(01|02|03|04|05|06|07)/7/04) -U 198+
# This drive has 40 “normally”.
/dev/sdd -s (S/../../6/04|L/../(01|02|03|04|05|06|07)/7/06) -W 0,42,45

Note: explanations below are intentionally simplified; please consult man smartd.conf for more precise, complete, and up-to-date information.

Ok, so what do these settings mean, and how is this different from default settings?
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A few days ago my smartd daemon (from the smartmontools package) notified me about a +1 increase in Current_Pending_Sector (197) and Offline_Uncorrectable (198) SMART attributes. The 2.5″ Fujitsu laptop hard-drive these appeared on is very old, and it also has been working 24/365 since a little over a year.

Running a short SMART self-test (sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sdc) produced a read error at sector 1289:

Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
1 Short offline Completed: read failure 80% 22339 1289

Looking at the partition table of /dev/sdc, we see that this sector is outside of the only RAID partition on the disk, which starts at sector 2048:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 2048 117209087 58605088 fd Lnx RAID auto

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A recent publication in The Guardian references a high-quality conclusive report of Bellingcat proving that in the summer of 2014 Russia used artillery and multiple rocket launch systems (MRLS) from its own territory to strike Ukrainian Army positions, effectively stopping the successful anti-terrorist campaign, and then overtaking long stretches of Ukrainian border (to enable easy supplies of more weapons, tanks, MRLS, and anti-aircraft systems). Shelling was followed by the full-scale Russian ground forces invasion around the 24th of August, which is Independence Day in Ukraine.

The Bellingcat shelling report is available in several languages and file formats:

• Origin of Artillery Attacks on Ukrainian Military Positions in Eastern Ukraine between 14 July 2014 and 8 August 2014 (PDF)
• Ursprung von Artillerieangriffen auf Stellungen der ukrainischen Streitkräfte in der Ostukraine im Zeitraum 14. Juli 2014 bis 8. August 2014 (German/Deutsch PDF)
• Происхождение артиллерийских ударов по позициям украинских военных в восточной Украине с 14 июля по 8 августа 2014 г. (Russian/по-русски)