Remember the days you sent photos via email to your friends or family members or used flash drives to carry your data? These past mundane things gradually gave way to new technologies. We looked at them questioningly when we were first introduced to cloud storage services— now without them we can’t imagine life. Cloud storage is part of our life and the number of people using it is increasing every day. The ease of use and the ability to access information at any time, make cloud storage one of the favorite solutions anywhere.

How to protect your data in cloud?

There are many cloud storage solutions nowadays that have different terms and conditions of use that can meet every user’s requirements. Of course, some of this variety is familiar to everyone, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, Amazon Drive, Box, etc. By sending links, they keep your data within reach and allow you to easily share information. What else can you ask for?

With each passing day, we are increasingly trusting these services, entrusting them not only with our recent vacation photographs, but also with our personal information, making the cloud a permanent place to store all our data, regardless of whether it is sensitive or not. However, there is a list of disadvantages you should be aware of, despite the obvious advantages of cloud services. Being thoroughly informed about the topic, we will help you avoid future problems.

Security is one of the key issues when working with cloud storage when storing and uploading data in the cloud, especially when talking about confidential and private data. It is a known issue that providers have the ability to view data from customers if it is not protected, or your data may fall into the hands of hackers who have been able to crack security systems from the provider.

The reliability and availability of data in the cloud depends heavily on the following parameters, such as data channels on the way from a client to a cloud, the reliability of the last mile, the quality of the work of the Internet provider of a client, and the availability of the cloud itself at any time. You should also not forget that your computer is not cloud storage. It belongs to an organization of a third party and may at some point be “turned off.” So if you store your important files there, you’re likely to lose all of them.

Here are several tips on how to secure your data in a cloud: minimize or avoid cloud retention of sensitive and personal data. It is better not to store your personal and sensitive information in the cloud. There are some chances that it will be available to the public after a while. Never store information that can harm you in cloud data storage, either now or in the future. Moreover, this also applies to the whole Internet. As you know, some user data leakage cases and their appearance in tabloids have occurred.

5 Tips for personal data protection in cloud

  1. Have a schedule for Regular data backups
  2. Encryption of data is important
  3. Choose the cloud service that encrypts data by default
  4. Read the Terms & Condition part of your cloud providers
  5. Create a STRONG PASSWORD

Have a schedule for Regular data backups

It’s always a good thing to back up your data somewhere else, however reliable the cloud might sound. Regular backups at least guarantee you do not permanently lose your valuable information in the event of a breach of the data or other data theft.

Encryption of data is important

Encryption is one of the efficient ways to secure your information. You ensure that your information can be read only by intended parties by encrypting sensitive data (only the parties with the decryption key). You’re good to go, just encrypt a file in front of the cloud upload!

Use encryption software to encrypt before uploading to a cloud if you don’t want your data to be compromised. To date, the most reliable way of ensuring information protection is encryption. These days, secure messaging applications such as Signal with end-to-end encryption are widely used. In cloud storage, the concept is broadly the same.

The data you normally upload to the cloud will be encrypted on your computer first and then sent to the cloud. You need to decrypt it with the private keys that you only own to see the data content again, and this can only be done after downloading your files. In short, since the data is encrypted, the cloud storage provider will not be able to read your data and potential data leaks will not harm you.

Choose the cloud service that encrypts data by default

Different cloud service providers offer various storage and handling options use cloud services that encrypts your data by default.

Finding an automatic data encryption cloud storage service will ensure that everything you share or store with that provider is secure. For users who want to encrypt all their data in the cloud rather than encrypt it case by case.

The only problem with this approach is that it could be difficult and cumbersome to manually encrypt and decrypt your files. This process is streamlined by many solutions.

There are both advantages and disadvantages in cloud storage. Whether to trust clouds with your personal data is a question that users need to answer on their own. However, given the increasing awareness of security and privacy policies such as GDPR, you can be sure that companies are investing in creating safer services and applications.

Read the Terms & Condition part of your cloud providers

Some cloud services enable you to share your data with others through it. Some cloud service providers do not announce that they may be allowed to use the Cloud content that they share. Before using their services, make sure you read the terms and conditions of a provider and examine their data protection policies!

Create a STRONG PASSWORD

Strong passwords are a vital component of good health and security, and cloud safety is no different. Passwords should be uniquely complex to ensure malicious players can not deviate from their other accounts or re-use compromised passwords. Regularly change passwords or when a compromise is reached. Use providers of cloud services that authenticate two-factor services where possible.

Use a powerful password that you’ve probably heard before

However, many users still neglect not to think about the consequences. For all services, many even use the same password and don’t bother with unique services. The stronger your password, the better your information will be secured.

Although, it could be a real pain to create and memorize strong passwords for all services, if you don’t know what to do, here’s a tip: develop your own algorithm by creating unique passwords and never forgetting them.