Google Cloud error erases $135B pension fund

Axios ^ | May 31, 2024 | Hope King

[Red Badger]

Earlier this month, Google's cloud platform deleted the entire customer account, including some backups, of UniSuper.

Why it matters: Fortunately for the $135 billion Australian pension fund's 647,000 members, some of UniSuper's backups on Google Cloud's servers and elsewhere were salvageable, and the fund was able to recover its data, teaching us all a lesson about having multiple redundancies.

What they're saying: This was not a "systemic issue," Google says.

"An inadvertent misconfiguration" during a setup left a data field blank, which then triggered the system to automatically delete the account. The big picture: Google is having a rough 2024. In addition to this mishap, the company is reeling from its AI Overview debut and its disastrous AI-generated image tool launch.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that some of UniSuper's backups on Google Cloud's servers were not erased.

[Political Junkie Too]

"An inadvertent misconfiguration" during a setup left a data field blank, which then triggered the system to automatically delete the account..."

Funny, that's the same excuse the Clinton White House used when all of Al Gore's subpoenaed emails suddenly vanished back in early 2000, along with all the backups.

The linked article has links to all the back stories by Paul Sperry.

-PJ

[dfwgator]

“I’ve got my pistol pawn cocked...”

[Billthedrill]

Man, people complain about the littlest things. It was only one blank field...

[Red Badger]

Google says it’s not ‘systemic’.

The system did it.....................

[thinden]

Yeah, The Cloud is safe!..............

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

good thing they didn’t have it in cryto

[Sequoyah101]

Yes, via OOPS. Sorry, your money is gone. Enforced by the injustice system where recourse and prosecution is only selective.

[BigFreakinToad]

Oh yeah, it’s coming and it’s coming soon. Right after the theft of the 24 election.

[BigFreakinToad]

Wow, thats pretty big oops.

[BigFreakinToad]

shouldn’t give them ideas

[drypowder]

I surmise that Google was funded, organized and operated as just another CIA entity.

[ShadowAce]

[Red Badger]

I don’t think it started out that way, but that’s the way it ended up.............

[Red Badger]

Yep, with a bigger Power Supply...............

[SaveFerris]

It will just get harder and harder to transact before then

[SaveFerris]

Yep

[SecondAmendment]

This is why you should never opt out of getting physical statements mailed to you for financial accounts.

[I want the USA back]

Anyone who would design a system that was this vulnerable should not be in IT!

You have to assume that disasters will happen, and develop systems accordingly.

[dayglored]

Rules for backups.

1. Make backups often.

2. Then make copies of the backups on some other local storage for fast recovery.

3. Then make copies of the backups in a different physical location for disaster recovery.

4. And then keep them all updated whenever the source data changes.

So, when was the last time you did even the first level of backup? Eh?

[dagunk]

So, when was the last time you did even the first level of backup? Eh?

***************************************************

Last week /grin/
One in the computer second drive.
One on an external drive that get stashed elsewhere.
Real Easy on a unix box.

[SteveH]

i dropped a box of 80 column fortran iv program cards once.

fortunately, i had marked the cards with a diagonal stripe, so it was not difficult to put the box of cards back together correctly again.

but it was a close one.