Anders Kørlund’s Post

Super important: Why you should have multiple backups sometimes Google recently made a major error by inadvertently deleting the private Google Cloud account of UniSuper, a $125 billion Australian pension fund. This mishap left over half a million UniSuper members unable to access their accounts for nearly a week, as reported by The Guardian. Fortunately, UniSuper had a backup account with another cloud provider, allowing services to be restored by May 2. This incident underscores the critical importance of having multiple backups and a robust disaster recovery plan. In today's digital age, where businesses heavily rely on cloud services, a single point of failure can lead to significant disruptions. Ensuring redundancy across different cloud providers can safeguard against unexpected outages and data loss, ensuring continuity and reliability for your services. Always be prepared for the unexpected. Diversify your backups and protect your data to minimize risks and maintain trust with your clients.

🚨 Always keep backups: an 'unprecedented' Google Cloud debacle saw a $135 billion pension fund's entire account deleted and services knocked out for nearly two weeks. You can be certain that, if Google can accidentally delete the entire account of a company like this, the same could happen to your company's data too. Two weeks of downtime ... for a company with much more in the way of resources than any SMB ... UniSuper had their data distributed across two geographies ... all were deleted as the result of a "miscofiguration" during provisioning 🤔 The moral of the story is this: cloud services do not eliminate risk of data loss or disruptions of service ... As bad as this incident is, it could have been much worse, had UniSuper not been creating their own backup sets ... but, still, two-weeks of downtime .... having backups is not enough, you need to have a plan for contingency and recovery that has been tested and proven to be viable. Simply moving your assets to the cloud shouldn't be thought of as being elimination of risk (or even being much in the way of reduction) ... before deciding to move data and services to a cloud, remember UniSuper and ask yourself: how would I recover if that happened to my business. https://lnkd.in/ehFe4ehN

This incident with UniSuper underscores a critical lesson for all organizations relying on cloud services. The fact that Google Cloud accidentally deleted UniSuper's entire account—an event that should never even be possible—highlights the vulnerability inherent in single-provider reliance. At ePlus inc., we understand the importance of robust backup solutions and advocate for a multi-cloud approach to mitigate such risks. Combining cloud services with on-premises solutions provides a safety net that can save organizations from significant operational disruptions. Investing in a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan is essential for safeguarding your data and maintaining trust with your stakeholders. Let's prioritize data protection and build more resilient IT environments. Read more about the incident here: Google Cloud Accidentally Nukes Customer Account #DataProtection #CloudBackup #ITSecurity #BusinessContinuity #ePlus Tony Leonardo ☁️Danny St.Onge Todd Wolff☁️ Michael DeMuro

In a recent incident, Google Cloud accidentally deleted the entire account of UniSuper, one of its major customers, causing extensive downtime. UniSuper, an Australian pension fund managing $135 billion with 647,000 members, was able to recover after a nearly two-week outage because of backups stored with another cloud provider. The incident underscores the importance of diversifying backup strategies. Whether through multi-cloud deployments or on-premises solutions combined with cloud services, safeguarding IT assets is crucial to prevent catastrophic data loss. #DataProtection #CloudBackup #ITSecurity https://lnkd.in/eTm2N2er

I've always thought that the only reason the public cloud will falter in growth is due to a massive ransomware attack that exposes all customer data (and potentially loses a lot of it). However, so far, we've not seen that, but we have seen a cloud platform itself do something similar. Google Cloud (as we reported a few weeks ago) managed to delete the entire account for UniSuper, an Australian pension fund with 647,000 members and $135 billion under management. The issue was so impactful, even the replicated data copies in a second region were deleted. The recovery (which took 2 weeks) was achieved by using backups outside of Google Cloud. If this incident doesn't scare you into not using the public cloud, I don't know what will. This may be a "once in a lifetime event", but I doubt it is the last we will see. I expect this scenario has happened with smaller customers and could hit another large customer (not just Google Cloud, but any cloud). Similarly, we should remember the OVH fire, which also massively impacted those customers with their backups in the same data centre. So, what surprises me most is how little this incident seems to have affected the industry. Other than the obvious reporting (linked below), there doesn't appear to have been much followup. None of the major on-premises infrastructure vendors have suggested themselves as alternatives. So do IT folks just not care? If you're confident of your backup situation, then I guess you're less concerned. In the case of UniSuper, the incident wasn't great but it appears the copy of last resort in a secondary location saved the day. What does this say about the future of on-premises versus cloud? To me it suggests that there are almost no incidents that will divert businesses from further public cloud adoption. This must be a massive red flag to on-premises infrastructure vendors that they're not winning hearts and minds. Ultimately, their businesses are destined to be a shadow of their former selves, with consolidation and acquisition a major theme for on-premises infrastructure companies. https://lnkd.in/eg6mFrRc

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐭.📝 Hold onto your keyboard…this cloud outage story is wild. ⌨ 😲 UniSuper, one of Australia's largest pension funds trusted Google’s private cloud platform with 1,900 virtual machines, safeguarding financial data worth $130 billion for future retirees. Sounds like a solid plan, right? 🤔 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧. 😰 After a “serious oopsie” misconfiguration on the Google side, the giant cloud had to confess (and profusely apologize) that they accidentally deleted UniSuper’s 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄 subscription. UniSuper even prepared for an outage by duplicating their environments in two different locations. Guess what? 𝐏𝐎𝐎𝐅. 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄! Both locations were eradicated and over 600,000 investors were locked out of their accounts for over a week. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝! 😎 🚀 UniSuper was only able to restore services because they had backups in place with another cloud provider. Whether this was due to compliance requirements, or the sheer genius of a lone IT backup admin remains a mystery. However, one thing is for sure – avoiding vendor lock-in saved the day. (𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞). ☕ Glitches, bugs, and human error are all inevitable. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟? 🛡 • 𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭 𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 - 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐬 🥚 (𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚) 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐭. 𝐍𝐨 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞 (𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐅) - 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐨 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞. • 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝-𝐭𝐡𝐞-𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫, 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬.⏱ • 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐑 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 – 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭-𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐃𝐑 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐲. #𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 #𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 #𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 Here’s UniSuper and Google’s joint statement 👉 https://lnkd.in/d2YuEpJ4

Don't suffer from brand damage by letting "an inadvertent misconfiguration" by a cloud provider negatively impact your business.   Always use a separate backup service provider in case you are the victim of an "isolated, one-of-a-kind occurrence" that forces you to activate your DR plan and recover data yourself. #DataRecovery #BusinessContinuity  https://lnkd.in/eWD5M3mn

Last week, amidst the buzz from Google I/O, a significant incident unfolded that has crucial implications for cloud service users. Google Cloud accidentally deleted the entire account of UniSuper, an Australian pension fund managing $135 billion and serving 647,000 members. 🗓️ Timeline of Events: • May 2: UniSuper’s Google Cloud account, including all backups, was deleted. • May 3: Google Cloud acknowledged the incident publicly. • May 6: UniSuper CEO assured members their data was safe, and pension payments continued. • May 9: Initial recovery signs with partial functionality restored. • May 15: Full service restoration achieved. Key Takeaways: Multi-Cloud Strategies: UniSuper’s recovery was possible due to its backups with another provider, highlighting the importance of diversifying cloud services. Transparent Communication: UniSuper and Google Cloud maintained transparency throughout the incident, reassuring stakeholders and mitigating concerns. Robust Backup Plans: Data protection through redundant backups is critical, even across multiple geographic locations. This incident is a stark reminder of the potential risks in cloud service dependencies. It’s essential to have a robust backup strategy and contingency plans in place. At Oper8 Global, we specialise in secure, reliable cloud solutions to protect your data across all environments. Our solutions, including CipherTrust Manager for key management from Thales, Payment HSMs for secure transaction processing, and CERT+ from AppViewX for certificate lifecycle management, ensure your data remains protected. Let us help you implement robust multi-cloud strategies and safeguard your business operations. #CloudSecurity #CyberSecurity #DataProtection #MultiCloud #BusinessContinuity #Oper8Global Thales Cloud Security AppViewX

Google Cloud accidentally deleted UniSuper's $135 billion pension account and its backups, causing a major disruption and downtime. Despite having backups with another provider, the incident raised concerns about data security and the reliability of cloud services. - ⚠️ UniSuper's entire account, including backups, was deleted at Google Cloud, leading to downtime from May 2 to May 15. - 🔒 Google Cloud CEO confirmed the deletion was due to an inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning of UniSuper’s Private Cloud services, a unique occurrence globally. - 🔄 Despite having duplication in two geographies for protection, the deletion caused data loss across both locations, highlighting the failure of safeguards against account deletion. - 💰 UniSuper, a significant Australian pension fund, faced challenges in processing requests and payments during the downtime, impacting stakeholders and service restoration. https://buff.ly/4bnGxSu #GoogleCloud #UniSuper #deletion #backups #cloudservices #Australia #CyberThreatIntel #CTI

Did you know that many businesses fail to back up their Office 365 cloud data? The cost of this oversight can be devastating. A recent critical failure at Google Cloud, which led to the accidental deletion of an entire customer account including all backups, underscores the severe consequences. This error resulted in a major pension fund experiencing weeks of downtime and significant operational disruption. At Solutions Squad, we specialize in safeguarding your Office 365 cloud environments. Our Expertly Managed IT Services include comprehensive third-party backup solutions that protect your data against any such catastrophic losses, ensuring business continuity and significantly reducing potential downtime costs. Don’t let your business be vulnerable to cloud disasters. Contact Solutions Squad today to secure your operations with our robust backup solutions. https://solutionssquad.com #Office365 #DataSecurity #CloudBackup #ExpertlyManagedIT #BackupSolutions #SolutionsSquad