Beware of the Cloud
American Spectator,
by
John Glynn
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
7/7/2019 5:16:23 AM
What, exactly, is the cloud? Where is the cloud? (No, not up there.)
In the most simplistic terms possible, cloud computing involves storing and accessing data and programs over the internet instead of a traditional hard drive. In many ways, the cloud is just a sexy metaphor for the internet. According to Eric Griffith, a writer for PCMag, “It goes back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm infrastructure of the internet as nothing but a puffy, white cumulus cloud, accepting connections and doling out information as it floats.”
Cloud computing offers a whole host of benefits, including almost unlimited storage
Reply 1 - Posted by:
MattMusson 7/7/2019 7:12:13 AM (No. 116325)
It turns out that the Cloud is really an NSA Server Farm in Provo, Utah.
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
HHFi2 7/7/2019 7:28:07 AM (No. 116343)
Throughout my life, I've been urged to engage in many dumb and self-destructive things, like sunbathing, smoking tobacco and pot, taking out student loans, and voting for Obama for President. I'm happy to say that I had enough sense to say no to all of them. But nothing ever struck me as being so manifestly stupid as the idea of storing all my personal data on somebody else's hard drive somewhere out in the great unknown and trusting that it would be secure. I remember the first time I heard about "cloud computing," I replied, "While I'm at it, why don't I just leave my wallet out on the front lawn?"
23 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
udanja99 7/7/2019 7:48:39 AM (No. 116356)
I’ve never knowingly kept anything in the Cloud. I use off site backup with iDrive and assumed that my information was stored on their hard drives. Is that not the case?
3 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 7/7/2019 7:50:50 AM (No. 116359)
This article skips over something very important. What is a better target, a person standing by themselves in a remote empty field or millions of people gathered together in a small area?
By putting the data of millions in one place, protected by one security plan you are standing up and shouting "HERE I AM!". It's not worth the effort to seek out one person who probably has nothing of value on their own computer. Sure, viruses and worms have been launched to wide damage but that is the point, the INTENT was to do damage, not to steal stuff. OS systems makers have become better at protecting against these types of attacks to the point where it's no fun to bother trying them any more. Besides, there is no money in it.
Instead, you go after the big targets that collect millions of people's data. Even if 99% of it is pictures from the 4th of July, that still leaves 10s of thousands of people who may have more valuable info stored. One breach and it all lies at your feet. People go to shop at a grocery store because THAT is where all the food is. Yeah, you could try to get into individual houses but the doors are usually locked and strangers in your home evoke a phone call to the police. The grocery store is open to anyone and no one pays the slightest attention to a stranger in a grocery store, even if they are stuffing food in their pockets.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
chance_232 7/7/2019 8:48:34 AM (No. 116424)
I refuse to use cloud storage or even MS Office over the internet, Just the act of downloading or uploading a file or files guarantees that someone in the government has intercepted it. Whether or not anyone reviews the files is entirely dependant on how interested the current government is in your activities. And I never allow any commerce site to maintain my credit card on file. My files are stored on my hard drive, and if important enough backed up on a separate hard drive and or thumb drive.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bad-hair 7/7/2019 8:49:20 AM (No. 116426)
My "online presence" says that anybody who wishes to steal my identity deserves everything they get.
1 person likes this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
chumley 7/7/2019 9:14:17 AM (No. 116462)
I love the cloud. I don't use it myself, but all the best intimate, very private pictures of our favorite celebrities have been stolen from there. Paparazzi wish they could get pix that good. Keep 'em coming!
0 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
hershey 7/7/2019 9:18:24 AM (No. 116467)
As an ex IT professional for many many years, if you want to protect your information, download it to a hard drive connected to your computer and then unplug the hard drive when done....NEVER use the 'cloud'...it is NOT secure...
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 7/7/2019 9:58:16 AM (No. 116508)
I have NEVER and WILL NEVER store any of my data on "the cloud". It is transparently stupid.
Storing your data "on the cloud" is literally giving away all your data to any of millions of faceless, nameless people and agencies around the world who might want to have it. Your data is on someone else's computer somewhere, protected by .....what? They CLAIM great security, but I don't believe a word of it.
No, ALL my data stays on my hard drives, and back hard drives.
I despise Communism in all things, including storing my data.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
cor-vet 7/7/2019 11:12:26 AM (No. 116596)
The cloud = Someone elses computer!
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
ZeldaFitzg 7/7/2019 4:27:50 PM (No. 116859)
For years I've had Carbonite backups daily. Just a habit which I need to break, but this has helped out in a pinch a long time ago. This reminds me to buy yet another (and much larger) external hard drive. We have back-up drives belonging to our adult sons here in our [allegedly] fire-proof safe. Copies of back-ups need to be added truly off-site in a trusted physical place. What is a concern to me is shared medical data----here I am in a drug store "med clinic" and the physician's assistant pulls up my entire medical history on her computer. Which means that anyone working in the office of a hospital or any sort of doctor or clinic can share your medical history with, say, a prospective employer of yours---an addition to your virtual reality resume, so to speak. Could be a lucrative side business for someone.
0 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
StormCnter 7/7/2019 5:59:30 PM (No. 116919)
As with some of the earlier posters, I am a bit of a fanatic about external hard drive backups. I confess to also using Carbpmote, but I have hard drive backups at the bank in the safe deposit box. I don't worry much about whether a cloud backup is secure. I have no personal data in my computer which is mostly filled with my enormous genealogy base. Anyone who wants to hack into that is welcome to my information.
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
StormCnter 7/8/2019 6:02:31 AM (No. 117176)
Sheesh! That would be Carbonite, of course. I think I dozed off.
0 people like this.
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