Why you need your own backup of cloud files

Date: Feb. 1, 2026    Categories: backup , stories

If you save files in Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or another cloud drive, you need your own separate backup of those files.

Yes, the big tech companies run backups of customer files. But they are far from perfect. All of your cloud files could disappear in a flash.

How could you lose all your files stored by a major cloud company? Here are just two of many ways:

• The cloud company could mistakenly identify a file in your account as illegal material relating to the abuse of children. Parents who saved entirely innocent photos of their kids have been hit by immediate account closures when pattern recognition technology generated false positives.

• A single technical error by an imperfect (we are all imperfect!) engineer could delete all your files and all the company's backups of your files. It happened to a large Australian business, UniSuper, in 2024.

The Australian pension fund manager, UniSuper, has over 600,000 members. The entire business was came to a near standstill for two weeks after all the files and backups for their cloud account were deleted by Google. Customers could not be served. Records could not be recorded in their systems.

Because UniSuper chose not to rely entirely on Google, they had a third-party backup of all their files. The recovery process was very time-consuming, but it got them back in business.

We offer automatic, independent backups of all your files, wherever they are. Let us know if you have questions about our file backup services and cyber security services.