The Hidden Dangers of Cloud-Only Solutions
While cybercrime is a very real and present danger pertaining to cloud computing, the scope of this post is cloud-only solutions, that is, solutions that store all of their data in the cloud, exclusively.
Account Lockout
In the words of Roger Fingas, “getting locked out of a Google account can legitimately be one of the worst things that can happen to you.” (Fingas, 2024) And the same goes for Apple and Microsoft accounts.
“The severity”, as Fingas also pointed out, “depends on how many services you're using.” (Fingas, 2024)
The Consequences of Losing Access to a Google Account
If your Google account is linked to your Google Chrome web browser, all of your bookmarks and login details may be lost.
If that account is linked to your YouTube channel, all of your uploaded videos, playlists, and viewing history will be lost.
That account is also linked to your Gmail, meaning all of your emails and attachments will be lost. And as Fingas, correctly pointed out, “many people depend on Gmail for their work and personal lives.” (Fingas, 2024)
That account is also linked to your Google Photos, meaning all of your irreplaceable memories will be lost.
That account is also linked to your Google Keep, meaning all of your notes will be lost.
That account is also linked to your Google Drive, meaning all of your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other stored items will be lost.
Finally, some services, like WhatsApp, also export backups directly to Google Drive.
While WhatsApp backups are end-to-end encrypted in transit, the archives stored on Google Drive are neither encrypted, nor password-protected. Consequently, your WhatsApp backups will be lost, or worse: accessible to whoever took control of your account. (Google Gemini, 2026)
But my Google Drive items are safely synced offline?
If your Google Drive is set-up as “mirrored”, you should have fully synced local copies of your files — we highly-recommend you copy those out of your Google Drive folder immediately.
In our experience, the content of hacked Google and Microsoft Accounts are often spitefully and irreversibly deleted,1 in which case the offline items will also disappear.
If your Google Drive is set-up as “streamed”, most of your files will not be available offline, even though you may see their titles, since they are downloaded on demand to save local storage space.2
Losing control of an online-only account, therefore, is not only a major inconvenience, but could also leave you heartbroken and destitute.
What can I do to protect myself against account lockout and data loss?
First and foremost, make a regular backup of your Google Account. We recommend adding a reminder to your Google Calendar.
It is also important to add (and update existing) account recovery options on your Google Account.
In a series of follow up posts you will learn how to recover a lost Google Account, and how to disable WhatsApp Backups to Google Drive, etc.
Footnotes
1. We had incidents where laptops were stolen, the perpetrator simply removed the login passwords with specialized software, opened the OneDrive, deleted all the files, and cleared the bin — effectively irretrievably wiping out the previous owner's data. ↩️
2. This is why we repeatedly insist that our clients do NOT “stream” files and folders on-demand, but rather opt for more local storage space, thereby facilitating mirroring. ↩️
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References
Fingas, R. (2024) Locked Out of Google Account? Here's How to Get Back in [News article]. Pocket-lint. https://www.pocket-lint.com/locked-out-of-google-account/
Google Gemini (2026, June 10) Conversation about WhatsApp backup encryption [Large language model]. Google. https://gemini.google.com/
Shah, S. (2025) YouTube scam alert: New phishing email targets accounts for takeover [News article]. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tech/youtube-scam-alert-new-phishing-email-targets-accounts-for-takeover-b1211255.html
For more information, run a Bing, DuckDuckGo or Google search for “dangers of cloud only solutions”.
📅 June 10, 2026
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