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ARTICLE · 07 JUNE 2024

The risks of cloud storage and backup failures

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The critical need to safeguard against IT failures was highlighted recently by the accidental deletion of UniSuper data.

AustraliaTechnology
Brendan Read
Brendan Read
Tony Vizza
Tony Vizza
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The critical need for businesses to safeguard against IT failures such as third-party provider disruption was highlighted dramatically recently with Google Cloud's accidental deletion of UniSuper's entire company and customer data.

The incident, caused by an "inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning", could have been catastrophic for UniSuper and its 647,000 members, had the $140 billion superannuation fund not held backups with another cloud provider.

The failure is a stark reminder of many organisations' high dependency on outsourced cloud and IT services providers. It also highlights the potential consequences organisations face when they fail to address the inherent risks of cloud and IT outsourcing, including reputational and financial risks, reduced stakeholder trust and potential legal liabilities. Even if fault is found to lie with the third party service provider, affected customers will typically hold responsible the company with which they have

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