The term cloud has been one of the biggest buzzwords since 2006, following the launch of Amazon’s AWS with its Elastic Compute Cloud Service. Today, storing data, from documents to photos, has become the norm, with the days of storing this information on a computer’s hard drive long gone. However, as cybercrime issues become more pressing, many people wonder how safe their cloud data is. The good news is that, for the most part, data stored in the cloud is relatively safe since it’s stored in an encrypted file with either a key held by the individual or by the cloud service itself. That said, nothing is a guarantee, and there are many things to consider when storing data in the cloud.
First, as governments crackdown on Internet activities increases, we are seeing many changes impacting cloud services and their users. Before we address this, however, it’s important to note that this is the case in many areas of the Internet. For example, the Indian government recently ordered VPN companies to store user data, which is why services like ExpressVPN for India have been trying to counter this and grant their users more privacy. Services like this allows users to use an Indian IP address without worrying about their activity being logged or collected in a way that could identify them.
This overseeing eye by the government has also impacted the cloud industry, since, in the United States, for example, the government could subpoena a cloud storage company at any given time. That means the cloud storage company would have to open its logs of client data. Therefore, even though storing data on the cloud is relatively safe, there is always the possibility that the government will require the company to open its client database.
Even though this is out of your control, there are things you can do to ensure you’re using a safe and secure cloud storage service. For instance, if you’re using cloud storage through a web application, it’s essential to consider the URL, which has variations, according to Geeks for Geeks. You want to look for “https” rather than “http” as the former is considered the more secure HTTP. Many people also suggest going through various steps to ensure you get the most out of cloud storage security. The best combination is to encrypt your data using encryption software before uploading it to the cloud, and then once that file is encoded, you can upload it to the cloud. When you want to access the encoded file, you can log into the service you’re using, download it, and then decrypt it yourself.
With that said, it’s important to mention that if you’re using a cloud storage solution that requires a password to access your data, you have to choose carefully. Passwords are easily hacked, no matter how close to your heart. For these reasons, the Cybernews website states that good passwords can be a combination of letters and numbers and even long phrases, making them harder to hack.
For the most part, storing data in the cloud is safe. However, as mentioned, nothing is a guarantee, and there are things to consider, such as government subpoenas and the potential hacking of passwords when using a solution that requires passwords to access data.
