Is the cloud safe?
For individual applications on the Cloud, the biggest risk is with the
level of access you are giving the apps you use. The best example here are the Facebook apps
you’ve probably been invited to use by friends.
If you’ve ever read the details of what access you are giving these apps,
you might think twice before installing some of them. You’re giving the app permission to access
your name, profile
pictures, username, user ID (account number), networks, your friend list,
gender, age range, and locale, and any other information you’ve made public on
Facebook.
Another example is with Google. While
your Google Account is very secure, using the Google Apps Marketplace for
add-ons created by third-party vendors, could give access to log-on
information, or allow the app access to the data in your Google account such as
your email, calendar, and Google Docs.
If you really want to use an app and want to get a better idea of how
safe your information will be you can search the app vendor’s website to determine
who they are and what security measures are in place - look for logos showing
security certification for the app.
Cloud storage providers take the security of your
information very seriously and have top security measures in place to protect
your data. They use file encryption,
which means your data is scrambled up and not easy to read; and your data is
usually stored in multiple data centres, which means that if something happens
to one location, your data is still safe on at least one other server in a
separate location. However, the most
important thing protecting your data is having a very strong password – and
that’s up to you.
Even
with these security measures, you need to be aware that they can never be 100%
safe. There have been cases where big
cloud storage companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Dropbox have experienced outages
and security problems, although they have been quickly detected and fixed. Even
though your files are protected by encryption and passwords, there is the small
chance that hackers could break the codes and access your data.
What
can you do to maximise the security of your data in the cloud?
Your password
Choose
a password that’s difficult to hack, and change your password regularly.
· Use at least eight
characters, the more characters the better really, but most people will find
anything more than about 15 characters difficult to remember.
· Use a random mixture of
characters, upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, spaces and symbols.
· Don't use a word found in a
dictionary, English or foreign.
· Never use the same password
twice.
Things to avoid
· Don't just add a single digit
or symbol before or after a word. e.g. "apple1"
· Don't double up a single
word. e.g. "appleapple"
· Don't simply reverse a word.
e.g. "elppa"
· Don't just remove the vowels.
e.g. "ppl"
· Key sequences that can easily
be repeated. e.g. "qwerty","asdf" etc.
· Don't just garble letters,
e.g. converting e to 3,
L or i to 1,
o to 0. as in
"z3r0-10v3"
Bad Passwords
· Don't use passwords based on
personal information such as: your name, nickname, birthdate, spouse’s name,
pet's name, friends name, suburb, phone number, car registration number,
address etc. This includes using just part of your name, or part of your
birthdate.
· Don't use passwords based on
things located near you. Passwords such
as "computer", "monitor", "keyboard",
"telephone", "printer", etc. are useless.
· Don't ever be tempted to use
one of those common passwords that are easy to remember but offer no security
at all. e.g. "password", "letmein".
· Never use a password based on
your username, account name, computer name or email address.
Good password tips
· Use the first letter of each
word from a line of a song or poem.
· Alternate between one
consonant and one or two vowels to produce nonsense words. eg. "taupouti".
· Choose two short words and
concatenate them together with a punctuation or symbol character between the
words. eg. "seat%tree"
Secure Site
If your
cloud storage works through a web app, ie. you go to its website and log-on to
access your files, look for "https" instead of "http" in
front of the URL in your browser's address bar. That extra "s" indicates
the form is using secure HTTP.
If you are thinking about using the cloud for
storing your business files, there’s a lot to consider before you make that
decision, and then there’s the decision of who is the best cloud provider for
your company.
However, if it’s for personal storage and backing
up of your own photos, music and files; or if you’ve ever needed to access what’s
on your computer when you’re not near your computer; the Cloud is definitely
the way to go - an easy way to store your data, free up your computer’s memory,
share your files with those you want them shared with, and the ability to
access it anywhere, at any time, on any device.
