Oops! Google Accidentally Deleted A Cloud Account With $125 Billion Pension Funds

We've all been there, right? Accidentally pressing the delete button on our laptops or mobile phones, only to realise that the wrong file has been deleted and now there's no way to get it back. While it's embarrassing and annoying, here's something to comfort you: it happens even to the best, and by the best, we mean one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Google accidently deletes cloud account

How else would you explain Google accidentally deleting the cloud account of a pension fund worth $125 billion? The private cloud account of the Australian pension fund UniSuper was accidentally deleted in what is being described as a 'one-of-a-kind' Google Cloud 'misconfiguration'.

Also read: Google Cloud's Confidential Computing Poised To Revolutionise Data Privacy

AFP

Service unavailable for over a week

According to reports, UniSuper suffered a widespread outage for nearly a week after the cloud account was deleted. This led to some 620,000 UniSuper account-holders being unable to access their accounts for nearly a week.

Last week, UniSuper and Google Cloud said that the services were partially restored and that it would take a few more days to normalize operations. The CEOs of UniSuper and Google Cloud also issued an unprecedented joint statement clarifying that the outage was not the result of a cyber-attack and no personal data had been exposed.

Also read: New Encryption Technique To Protect Pics On Cloud Storage

UniSuper

Google Cloud, UniSuper joint statement

"Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian, has confirmed that the disruption arose from an unprecedented sequence of events whereby an inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning of UniSuper¡¯s Private Cloud services ultimately resulted in the deletion of UniSuper¡¯s Private Cloud subscription," the statement said.

"This is an isolated, 'one-of-a-kind occurrence' that has never before occurred with any of Google Cloud¡¯s clients globally. This should not have happened. Google Cloud has identified the events that led to this disruption and taken measures to ensure this does not happen again," it added."

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