Google Cloud Accidentally Deleted With $125 Billion Pension Funds
UniSuper CEO Peter Chun and Google Cloud global CEO Thomas Kurian have reassured members that the recent outage experienced by the $125 billion pension fund was not the result of a cyber-attack, and they clarified that no personal data was compromised.
The disruption, which affected over half a million UniSuper members and lasted for a week, was caused by a rare incident of misconfiguration on Google’s part. In an unusual turn of events, Google accidentally deleted UniSuper’s account, leading to the inability of members to access their superannuation accounts.
UniSuper, an Australian superannuation fund catering to employees in the higher education and research sectors, provides retirement savings services to individuals affiliated with universities, colleges, and research institutions in the country.
The incident was attributed to a “one-of-a-kind” misconfiguration on Google Cloud. Both CEOs issued a joint apology to members, acknowledging the outage as “extremely frustrating and disappointing.” They attributed the problem to a glitch in Google’s cloud service, emphasizing that it was not a deliberate cyber-attack.
The Guardian reported the incident, highlighting the inconvenience faced by UniSuper members during the outage period. Despite the disruption, efforts were made to reassure members of the security of their personal data and to address the technical issue promptly.
