Protect Your Data (Part 2) – Cloud Storage

“Cloud Storage” is a term which, to a non-technical person means: “somewhere to store your data that is not on my device”.

The sales pitch used by all technology companies that provide this service, includes:

• It’s free (up to a certain limit)
• It’s accessible from any device
• It’s managed by a company that respects your privacy
• It’s managed by a company that understands security
• It’s managed by a company that understands service reliability
• It’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

So when a salesperson tries to sell you something that is too good to be true, then you can be sure that it is “not true”.

Each of the statements above have some commercial implications that you need to understand before you entrust the company with your private, or valuable information. Rest assured, that I will finish this article by giving you a practical alternative, to using these commercial services for your day-to-day confidential, or private, data.

It’s Free

In order to use a Cloud Service, you must agree to the Terms and Conditions (TOC)s of the service provider. I suggest that you read this carefully, rather than just “agree and continue”. They are legal contracts and they stipulate what you are allowed to store, who has access to the information stored and in particular, what is shared by the provider, with third parties.

For the common ones, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Dropbox you may be in for a shock. It would require a lawyer to explain their TOCs to you, but in essence, you have delegated the “data” and “information about your usage” and “information about you” to the company and third parties of their choice. For marketing companies, this is worth gold to them. They are earning an income from things that they know about you.

It’s Accessible From Any Device

This is true only while you have power, ie.: battery power in mobile device, electricity to your house. Furthermore, it is also only true if the GSM network to you mobile phone is operational (you are in signal range, etc.), or your broadband service is available if you are at home. Recent events in many countries, in particular yesterday, in Australia (with Optus) would suggest that this is no guarantee.

It’s Managed By A Company That Respects Your Privacy

None of the Cloud Storage providers mentioned so far, are transparent about how they use the data, what they have in place to prevent cybercrime, or what they would do in the event that a government agency was to demand the data to be “handed over” to them. All of the TOCs would suggest that your data is freely accessible by the system administrators (people) working for that company who are responsible for the company’s computer and network infrastructure. In addition, unnamed “third parties” such as contractors are able to access the data. In short, the information stored on their equipment is essentially, “public”. You would therefore not comply with any country’s privacy laws if you chose to store private and confidential information in a standard Cloud Storage.

It’s Managed By A Company That Understands Security

There is literally no large technological company that fully understands security or is even remotely able to use current industry standard security measures.

If there was, then cybercrime would end today. The systems the power any Cloud Storage facility are too complicated for most of their staff to get a handle on industry best practice in security. Security is generally the last consideration in building this type of infrastructure. If you look at Microsoft development over the years, you will certainly understand the reason why they were heavily criticised for their software development strategies by the security experts. They have improved greatly, but from my experience, still have a long way to go.

The motivation for software development was clearly in this order: profit, then user convenience, then security.

It’s Managed By A Company That Understand Service Reliability

Yes, you would be correct if you believed this. All of the major companies are certainly reasonably good at making sure that the service is reliable, until something goes wrong. Large companies that use Cloud Storage for business usually sign Service Level Agreements (SLA) to help them sleep at night, knowing that their data will be available when they need it. You can be sure that if you have not signed a SLA with your Cloud Storage provider, you will be the first to have your data destroyed, cut off, etc. in the event of a system failure and you will have no legal recourse for litigation or compensation.

It’s Available 24/7

If you have read all the information provided under the other headings, you will no longer see that this is ever a guarantee, either for a small consumer at home, or even for a large business.

Now imagine what would happen if Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, etc. were hacked and as a consequence, you were locked out of your account for a day, a week or indefinitely. Your data is effectively locked in safe without a key.

Taking Ownership Of Your Data

Now that you are aware of what Cloud Storage is, here are my recommendations:

• If the information you wish to store is sensitive confidential. Do not use a Cloud Storage provider.
• If you are in disagreement with your own government on what is and isn’t right. Do not use a Cloud Storage provider.
• If you have “nothing to hide” and are happy with the limitations and or convenience offered by a Cloud Storage provider, fully encrypt your data before uploading to their servers. The encryption should be current industry best practice and I would suggest you review your software applications to see what they offer and how they would manage doing this for you.
• Consider installing your very own Cloud Server at home. If you are interested in doing this, then consider purchasing a Network Attached Storage (NAS), which has most of the software tools available to manage it for you. I will go into a more technical discussion on this subject in a future instalment. I would personally recommend NextCloud software to do the hard work of managing files, security, etc.
• If installing your own Cloud Server is “above your pay grade”, at least store your most valuable data in reputable portable storage devices. External SSD drives are now cheap, readily available and reliable. Then put your external drives in a fireproof home safe when you are not using it and you are back in control.