- Microsoft deleted a user’s OneDrive account after it was compromised
- This resulted in the loss of 25 years of photographs and games.
- The incident is a reminder to use multiple backup solutions.
How much do you have stored in your Microsoft account? Consider all the photos and documents backed up to OneDrive, the games and apps linked to your username, and everything else. Many of us have a lot stored there, but as a Microsoft user recently discovered, everything can be deleted in an instant, with Microsoft itself doing the deleting.
In a post on
Khane shared an email from Microsoft explaining that since “unauthorized access” to his account occurred, i.e. possible compromise by hackers, “we have permanently suspended the account.” Microsoft confirmed that “this action is irreversible… Additionally, if you had files stored on OneDrive, those files can no longer be accessed. Due to encryption and privacy safeguards, not even our engineers can recover them.”
The move left Khane outraged, with the incredulous user condemning Microsoft’s decision not to restore his account: “One of the biggest companies could never do that, so they just deleted that shit like it was nothing?”
“Although security could be tighter on my part (lessons are learned),” they added, “what bothers me most is that Microsoft says they can’t recover my account and suspended it… Thousands of euros have gone down the drain because I also lost all my games! I couldn’t back them up and I trusted Microsoft to keep them safe, even if they compromised me!”
How to keep your data safe
After the saga was posted on Reddit, other users chimed in with their own similar stories. “It happened to me too,” said one user. “I had proof of payment and everything going back 20 years. They said sorry, the best we can do is block your account forever.”
Another gave Khane some advice: “When this happened to me, I created the new account and sent them an email (in the same thread) with the new account information. They basically cloned the old account into the new one and I got everything back.” Elsewhere, many users recommended Khane take legal action against Microsoft.
If you want to avoid a similar fate, it’s important that you don’t back up your important documents to a single source, whether it’s cloud storage like OneDrive or an external storage drive. If something goes wrong, your only copy will have disappeared into the ether.
Instead, build redundancy into your backups. Use a cloud backup service like Backblaze and a local NAS or offline archive drive. If possible, make sure your backups are in different physical locations, including one off-site.
As Redditor Linesey aptly suggested: “Get a NAS, get an off-site location like a lockbox for cold storage, and then use the cloud if you really want, as another layer.” That way, you’ll at least have a fallback option if a company like Microsoft decides to delete your data without notice.
It’s also worth setting up passcodes and multi-factor authentication on your accounts and using one of the best password managers to strengthen and store all your logins. That way, you make it harder for bad guys to access your account and less tempting for Microsoft to hit the big red button, with irreversible consequences.
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