Is Our Data Really Safe?

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Continuing with this week’s topic, I want to discuss the safety of our data on ‘The Cloud’.

Is our information really safe on the Internet?

‘The cloud’ is a term that means data is stored on the Internet. There are many forms of ‘The cloud’ for different devices. Such as:

·      ICloud - Mac users

·      One Drive - Window users

·      Google drive - Google users

·      Drop box – Any device users

All these remote storage options seems like a great idea to people as they have somewhere to put their data without using up any storage on there devices.

But have you ever wondered what happens to our data once it’s uploaded on the cloud? Can anyone take it? I will discuss this a bit later on in the article, but first…

‘The Cloud’ allows users a certain but large amount of free space to store whatever data they want.

The question here is, why do the directors allow people so much space, is it an advertising gimmick or is it something more? Are we being manipulated to store as much data as we can so other people can use it?

Never thought about it like that before?

That may be because as humans we tend not to second-guess ourselves when it comes to the easier options. Why would we though, not having to overload our devices with data, a lot of space to store data on the Internet, and it’s free. So how is this bad?

Picture from: http://www.leweschamber.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/38952.jpg

Well, after a lot of research as well as briefly remembering one of my computing teachers back in high school saying that ‘The Cloud’ is actually a large server farm, which holds everyone’s data. Yes, our data isn’t floating around in mid air, it is actually stored in a physical location.

This may seem harmless, as the data is just lying there waiting for you to retrieve it again, but one of the many questions that’s wrong with this situation is, where is it located?

No one actually knows where it is; it could be in a warehouse in another country, or in a shed in some remote backyard.

Even if you try searching the Internet, “where are the cloud data servers located?” you will find vague answers about other types of servers, articles informing us about the dangers, but none actually give us a clear answer, therefore dictating that our data is ‘floating’ around somewhere that can’t be seen. (No pun intended)

Doesn’t that seem frightening?

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By just a click of a button our data is uploaded on the net, but where it goes nobody knows.

When using ‘The Cloud’ we believe that it is stored somewhere safe, somewhere close by, but is that really the case? I personally don’t believe so, which makes me wonder, why do people still use it, why are we still getting manipulated into doing things that can cause harm?

The only explanation that I could come up with was, that us humans are gullible, we want to believe the best in people, we want to believe that everyone is trying their best to make the world a peaceful place, but is this actually true I wonder?

The idea that our data isn’t safe from anyone, is another huge problem with ‘The Cloud.’ Did you know that anyone is capable of accessing your data? To some this may not be a big deal, as maybe your data is just old homework from school, or anything not worth worrying about, but for some it means years of family pictures, important work files, it could maybe also mean medical records. This then puts a spanner in the works. How can someone that isn’t you, access your files?

Well, as ‘The Cloud’ is an Internet based storage software, which allows the entire Internet available world to use, makes stealing data a little easier.

A hacker, crackers, whoever has the will and capability to go to lengths to retrieve data that isn’t theirs, can do it.

I don’t understand entirely how they do it, but I do know ways in which to prevent this from happening.

·      Passwords – By having a strong password enables you to better protect your data. Try using different upper case, lower case letters, special characters and numbers within your password as it makes decrypting it a lot harder. Also another point is to not create a password that means anything to you as there are algorithms that can match your personal lives to your passwords.

·      Encryption – Encrypting your data means to process your data into code so no one can decipher it before having to decrypt it, which can take time. This allows better protection as decrypting the data can take a while, which can be better used somewhere else.

But we all know that there are people out in the world that hack into things, that’s not really big news, is it?

That’s why more importantly I want to discuss the question that has me more freaked out, Do we still have our rights to our own data since it’s stored in a remote area?

Think about it, we don’t know where this location is; we don’t know who owns the area, or who maintains the servers. If we don’t know these simple questions, then how would we know if we even own our own data?

I may not know who is able to access our data apart from the hackers and crackers but I do know that if different governments and/or terrorism groups get a hold of certain data it could lead to a disaster and hence makes me extremely cautious of my actions when uploading data onto ‘The Cloud.’

- Isabella G.

Please feel free to write a comment if you have a different view point on anything I discussed in the article as I wish to broaden both my understanding of this topic as well as everyone else's.