Why the fear of "The Cloud"?

[Violescent]

I still don't understand when people tell me that they are afraid of storing all of their info in cyberspace. I find it much safer than having it on a hard drive. I've lost more info that way than anything I've ever saved to "The Cloud". As far as safety, if you do anything online, like online banking, for instance, you save your passwords and personal info on a website already. What's the difference?

 

[Quags]

Two main issues I see people bringing up are the possibility of loosing data in the cloud (data loss, company going under) and security (access to the data).

Depending on the set up a cloud storage may have data redundancy built into it to protect against hardware failures, but not all do. For example on interserver VPS's there is raid 1 / raid 10 protection but no backup are included by default. On our up coming back up system the data stored there is stored in three locations on separate servers to prevent against data loss. But, on a VPS with out backups if a file is deleted accidentally lets say its gone.

The second is data security. Again, this is something that properly set up each storage section is isolated from each other, preventing accidental access to another location due to a bug, or security issue.

 

[mark edwards]

an old saying "Only the paranoid survive".

an additional supplement is to tie your server into dropbox [via dropbox-CLI] and also box.com [via webdav]. then use every backup service available.

my most important stuff is backed up in several places.

 

[Sal Radler]

I think that if a file(s) is/are very important to you, then you need to store it/them both physically and in the cloud. That's the ultimate insurance policy for protecting sensitive data. You will have the option to access your important files anywhere, any time, and in any situation; no problems whatsoever.

 

[dstours]

I believe a lot of people are hesitant from moving towards cloud based solutions because they believe you won't be able to manage your infrastructure if your Internet connection dies. Also, a lot of people aren't exactly sure what 'the cloud' is. A majority of people don't like change, why would they change to something they are 'afraid' of?

Another reason is cost. A majority of the time, having a cloud based solution is going to be far more expensive than having a datacenter right down the hall.

Lastly, what happens if the cloud service provider fails? What if they get hacked? Is all my data accessible to everyone? All in all, I think it's just a lack of information/people are afraid of change.

 

[LivelyTwenty]

I can see why people won't want to store there information on the cloud as a primary source. I mean, you're leaving all your data to the internet. There could be hackers, data wipes, and so many unexpected things.

 

[orlando curtis]

I never understood what that ment online when they use it.

 

[Satori]

I do understand said 'fear'.
When data is on your own hard drive, it is usually safe, but most important: it makes the user feel in control, because if something breaks, it is most likely their own fault.
Servers which store data can fail and corrupt data (shouldn't happen, but it does), or get hacked and leak the stored data.

The most paranoid way to store your data in 'the cloud': Encrypt it, store it twice (on different servers).
Yes, this is paranoid redundancy, but that's what we want in this case, don't we?

 

[seotut]

The problem with the Cloud is that you give access to your data to some random company. Why would you trust a random company with your data, when it would be just as easy to store it at home? Worried about losing your data? Buy another hard-drive or ssd and hook it up in a RAID setup. It will be much cheaper than paying a recurring fee every month, and chances are you'll also have more storage space.

The problem in general is that now there are so many SaaS apps, which have no reason whatsoever to exist. The service they are providing could much easier and efficiently be done on your own computer, and if you care about security you definitely don't want to add another weak link.

 

[Hardison]

This is a great question!

I have lost many files while they were stored in the cloud. I had some files that were stored on a site that was taken over my US government. I guess the site was also know for sharing TV shows, movies and music. I didn't have any of that stuff stored there, I still lost everything when it was taken over.

I have never lost files on my computer. Even when I had my hard drive crash, I was still able to retrieve my files.

Security is also a big issue for me. I remember reading about hackers that were targeting "very high income" bank accounts. The hackers were stealing six figures and more from bank accounts. Those accounts were cloud based. I don't have six figures in my account, but I still worry about security.

 

[TheViper]

There is cause for concern to storing your information on the cloud. You literally have your stuff on the internet where you are trusting the company to keep it safe. There, are hackers who can get into that information if they really want to. I would rather have a physical hard drive to store my information then to put it in the trust of some online storage.

 

[John Baker]

I think there is a lot my reasons people fear the cloud. All the time you hear news stories about websites having outages - and people are scared of losing there data/not being able to access it. They're also afraid of their information going where they don't want it - hackers, snooping governments (National Security Agency, anyone?), etc.

 

[Jay Gould]

I think with any new technology people are afraid of committing everything to it. I still personally prefer to have a physical backup on an external HDD rather than use a cloud service (which is free whereas a HDD isn't) simply because I don't know how reliable the service is going to be. It may be with Google but even bigger companies get hacked and have data released (see: Sony) so it's more of a precaution on my part.

 

[hydrlon]

I look at it as that if it's uploaded to the internet, people who want to tap into that necessary info, for say the government can do so. Also, I've ran into issues with compromised accounts on cloud websites and I ended up losing a lot of personal information that got leaked into the internet.

 

[hydrlon]

an old saying "Only the paranoid survive".

an additional supplement is to tie your server into dropbox [via dropbox-CLI] and also box.com [via webdav]. then use every backup service available.

my most important stuff is backed up in several places.

It seems that that saying was made by paranoid people themselves, I'd never use cloud.

 

[Grumpy]

For me any potential worry would be solely about security. I wouldn't be too worried about companies going under and things like that because in almost all cases there's some recourse for regaining access or restoring data, even in that eventuality. Security, on the other hand, is something different. Bear in mind that "The Cloud" is a relatively new idea introduced to the internet, it's only come to the forefront of many peoples minds in the past couple of years... trust takes a long time to build.

 

[haynes11]

The thing is, people are going to have to accept it. In terms of backing up, it should be done both physically and on the "cloud." But the thing we can't avoid is, almost everything on the internet is done on the cloud now, I mean to the point that even the latest Windows OS (Windows 8) is entirely cloud based and linked to my email account etc. It's not something you can escape so I guess people will just have to get on with it, either that or don't use any websites/internet at all.

 

[mikelouis]

I have never been a fan of Cloud Computing. I only use it for light file storage.Retrieving your documents can be hectic especially if you have a bad internet connection. This is why I prefer to use external hard disks.

 

[sanders89]

I think it just feels much more secure for me to keep in on a hard drive in my own home, and I know that it's got everything stored away just fine. I think that is more comfortable for me than storing it where I have no idea where it is, and I just worry that other people will somehow hack my cloud.

 

[alexishbob]

I think the main thing is that a lot of people who just generally aren't too trusting of tech in general are still in the mindset that having a physical copy of something is the safest way to go about it. To a certain degree they have a point, I wouldn't personally store everything on the cloud, but I do use cloud storage for backups. The main reason for this is that I'm very forgetful with my log in details, not too clever! There is also the issue of companies going under, which could end up with all your data being lost. Not being aware of who is able to access the data is also a big point a lot of people make with regard to this.

 

[oldwriter]

Fears of the cloud might be unreasonable to some, but there have been cautionary tales already. You might think a loss of cloud provider would only sting the unwary consumer, but it has struck companies too, even as large as IBM ( http://www.wired.com/2013/10/nirvanix-bankrupt/ )

The best path? Having cloud redundancy of course. If you are a home user using the cloud for regular file backup purposes, you better go with the big players. Chances are quite slim for losing your files due to the two largest players going bankrupt at the same moment in time.

Remember to always keep as much files as possible stored under your control (locally) too.

 

[despicable]

Does this paranoia still exist? From what I have seen, almost all the people are dieing to get their hands on best cloud storage plans for their respective backups. It might have to do with "megaupload" case and few others who was put under a bad light by the media. Those easily devours your trust to online services, but those tech minds like myself p) will definitely look the other way.

 

[hansenlaw]

The same reason anyone is afraid of something. Because they don`t understand it. You have to realize that nothing is 100% safe no matter how it`s advertised. Hard Drive vs. Cloud. Someone could steal your physical hard drive, and someone could potentially steal your cloud data (given it`s worth stealing). It comes down to the devil you know.

 

[mouseandkb]

The fear comes from:

1. Giving your data to a company and/or government
2. Being forced to trust that the company will keep the data safe

The fear that someone other than you has complete access to your data can be scary. It's similar to transferring your personal files to a flash drive and entrusting it to some person offering to store it for you. Now, that person has the ability to copy, delete, read, and modify your data. There's also the fear of your files being lost, but having local backups mitigates that problem. Besides, the company probably backs up data much more than you do!

Cloud storage does have its many benefits. Why do we even store our files on the Internet anyway? Most of us do it because of the convenience!

 

[cameronpalte]

I don't have a fear for the cloud. The reason I don't use the cloud is first of all it is is expensive and second of all it takes a long time to upload or download things with my slow internet connections which as a result makes it so that it is not worth it for me.

 

[Dez97]

I don't understand why everyone is so scared as well, I think with all the paper work and files that I do on a regular base I am happy to have somewhere I know that I can put everything and 10-20 years from now if and when I remember the password I can quickly go and get it.

I think everyone should try it.

 

[jurew2]

I think that the people that aren't used to the computer and technologies want to keep their important files as far away of the internet, because they hear so much about hacking into some very high security facilities and stealing important data. I think that the safest way to store some very important data/files is to store them on an external hard drive. But many people have the irrational fear of the internet, about putting their word documents in the cloud storage etc. and I think this is pathetic, no hacker will steal your paper for school or excel tabels for work which are due tomorrow.

 

[Rohan99]

I think the fear is justified because you are really storing your information on someone's server. The servers can crash and you will lose all that information or worst the server could be hacked and your sensitive information leaked. The cloud is not 100% safe for storing your valuable data and information and therefore many persons are afraid to do so. How we don't know that the NSA has access to these cloud storage servers?

 

[licklozay]

For me the fear of the cloud is not really about being afraid that somebody might lose your information for you. The real fear begins when I begin to think that somebody has all of my information somewhere else. I'm a very private person and I love to keep my stuff to myself. Putting stuff on the cloud allows other people access to my information. So for me it's a bit tricky I have to strike that balance between privacy and safety. It's definitely a whole lot safer to have stop on the cloud, but at the same time I really don't know how much I want to let other people have access to.

 

[vegito12]

Saving to hard drive or disk own ones is good. When saved to a hard drive a virus can happen or hacked and cause problems. Losing data can be shocking if a website does not work or faces problems, and data lost. The security would trouble me and I would keep data in hard copy as I would know it is safe.