10 Critical incidents of cloud data loss
From ransomware attacks to simple human error, the following events demonstrate the diverse ways data can vanish and the consequences of being unprepared.
1. Carbonite (2009): The cost of cutting corners
Early in the cloud storage boom, Carbonite suffered a massive failure. The root cause was their reliance on consumer-grade hardware rather than enterprise-level infrastructure. When the equipment failed, they lacked adequate redundancy mechanisms.
The lesson: Professional data requires professional-grade storage solutions. Relying on cheap hardware for critical backups is a gamble that doesn’t pay.
2. Dedoose (2014): Putting all your eggs in one basket
Dedoose, a research application, lost weeks of client data due to a critical architecture flaw: they stored their primary database and their backups on the same system. When that system crashed, everything went down with it.
The lesson: A backup is only a true backup if it is separated from the source. Primary data and backup files should never share the same physical system or environment.
3. StorageCraft (2014): The metadata trap
During a complex migration, StorageCraft deactivated a server too early. While the raw data might have arguably existed elsewhere, the metadata — the index that tells the system what the data is — was destroyed. Without that map, the backups were essentially unreadable digital noise.
The lesson: Protecting your data means protecting the metadata, too. Migrations are high-risk periods that require triple-checked safety nets before any hardware is turned off.
4. Code Spaces (2014): The ransom that killed a company
Code Spaces was a hosting provider that fell victim to a hacker. When the company refused to pay an extortion fee, the attacker gained access to their AWS control panel and deleted everything, including machine instances, storage volumes, and backups. The company was forced to shut down permanently almost overnight.
The lesson: If your backups are accessible via the same admin credentials as your live site, a single breach can wipe out your entire business. Off-site, immutable backups are the only defense against this level of sabotage.
5. Musey (2019): The one-click nightmare
In a tragic case of “fat-finger” error, the startup Musey accidentally deleted their entire Google Cloud environment. Because they were relying solely on Google’s native tools and had no external copy of their intellectual property, over $1 million in data vanished instantly. Google could not retrieve it.
The lesson: Failure to secure your data and configure your environment correctly can lead to catastrophic data loss and business disruption.
6. Salesforce (2019): When the vendor breaks it
Salesforce rolled out a fix for a bug, but instead, it inadvertently gave users permission to see data they shouldn’t. The issue was widespread, and their internal backups were unable to easily revert the permission structures for specific customers without rolling back massive amounts of global data.
The lesson: Even the tech giants make coding errors. You need an independent backup that you control, allowing you to restore your specific environment regardless of what is happening on the vendor’s end.
7. KPMG (2020): Policy gone wrong
A simple administrative error in Microsoft Teams retention policies wiped out chat logs and files for 145,000 KPMG employees. The system did exactly what it was told to do: delete old data. Unfortunately, it was told to do it by mistake.
The lesson: Software-as-a-Service platforms like Microsoft 365 often treat deletion as a feature, not a bug. Third-party backup solutions act as a safety net against accidental policy changes.
8. OVHcloud (2021): Physical disasters still happen
A massive fire tore through an OVHcloud data center in Strasbourg, France. Many clients assumed their data was safe because they had cloud backups. However, those clients learned too late that their backups were stored on servers in the same building as their live data. Both buildings burned to the ground.
The lesson: Geographic diversity is essential. Your backup should reside in a different city, state, or even country than your primary data center.
9. Rackspace (2022): The high price of delay
Rackspace’s Hosted Exchange service was decimated by a ransomware attack that exploited a known security vulnerability. The company had delayed applying a critical patch. The result was months of recovery efforts and millions of dollars in losses.
The lesson: Security hygiene is part of backup strategy. Furthermore, having backups is not enough; you must be able to restore them quickly. A backup that takes weeks to restore is a business continuity failure.
10. UniSuper (2024): The survival story
In a rare success story among these disasters, a Google Cloud configuration error wiped out the private cloud of UniSuper, an Australian pension fund. It was a complete deletion. However, UniSuper survived because they had subscribed to a separate, third-party backup service. They were able to restore their environment fully.
The lesson: This is the ultimate proof of concept. Having a backup that is completely independent of your primary cloud provider can save your company from demise.
How to build a bulletproof cloud strategy
To avoid becoming the next cautionary tale, your organization needs to move beyond basic cloud storage and implement a rigorous defense strategy.
- Adopt the 3-2-1 backup rule: This industry-standard rule is simple but effective:
- Keep three copies of your data.
- Store them on two different types of media (e.g., a local drive and the cloud).
- Keep one copy completely off site.
- Test your recovery, not just your backup: A backup file is useless if it is corrupted. Schedule regular drills where you attempt to restore data from your backups. You do not want to find out your recovery plan is broken during an actual emergency.
- Harden your security: Since attackers often target backups to prevent recovery, lock them down. Use multifactor authentication on all backup accounts and ensure that even admin-level users cannot easily delete backup archives.
The cloud is powerful, but it is not magic. By preparing for the worst-case scenario, you ensure that a technical glitch or a malicious attack remains a minor inconvenience rather than a business-ending event.
Don’t wait for a disaster to reveal the gaps in your security; contact our experts today to design a robust backup strategy tailored to your business needs.