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Wouldn't it be wonderful
if our files are smart enough to protect our information from unauthorized
users? Unfortunately, files aren't that smart. They have no control over
accessing information to any random users. Sometime files are shared with the
wrong recipients and it can cause a lot of problems. Last year, you might have
read that small numbers of user’s Dropbox account were hacked. Well, Dropbox is
not the only file sharing service that is hacked. There have been many other
services such as iCloud, evernote, were hacked at some point in
the past. This raises a major concern about security issues for sharing
important files on cloud.
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So what types of
security issues are generated in file sharing technology? Well, there could be
many types of security issues. For example, one of the common issues is
installing malicious code to your computer. When you download a file from
cloud-based services, it is almost impossible to verify if the file is
trustworthy or not. This file could be sent to you by cyber criminals to
transmit malicious code to your computer. Unknowingly, you may be giving
unauthorized users access to your personal information by downloading that file.
Once your information is exposed to unauthorized user, it is hard to tell how
many other people have accessed your information. If a user decides to download
or upload files to reliable cloud-based services, then there should proper
tools to monitor this activity.
I am not denying the
fact that the file sharing technology has benefited many businesses and
education systems. Through this blog post, I wanted to point out the other
side of file sharing technology. Many security issues have been resolved in the
past and I am very sure that other security issues will be solved quickly by
cloud-based services.
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I like how you focused on the risks of file sharing. People generally believe that their files are safe if they are in the cloud, but they aren’t. There is always a risk when you upload to the cloud, because then it’s on the Internet, where it is vulnerable to attack and unauthorized sharing. This is really important for companies with sensitive information, who encrypt the files they upload to the cloud, and use their own servers to prevent unauthorized access. But even then there are some cases of their data being shared.
ReplyDeleteHi Nirav,
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your post, I have a different point of view about file sharing with Dropbox. Now, you make me think a little bit about security problem that I may encounter when using that service. I do believe that only fools would public their private data, and I do believe all net users have the right to choose what and where to public their data. For now, I would choose a proper sharing service for data that I don't want to public it globally. Thank you.
This is so true. Many people don’t realize all the dangers and risks of file sharing. It is important to safeguard yourself by not uploading files with personal and sensitive information to the cloud. We can encrypt files to further protect ourselves. It can be a great tool when we use it carefully. As we have more and more devices, it becomes more important to store our stuff on the cloud so we can access our files from anywhere.
ReplyDeleteHello Nirav!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that security has become a critical issue for cloud-based services. Sometime people just sacrifice security and prefer convenience. I think security is a multi-side effort that both service providers and users should all take time working on techniques to prevent further security issue. I do have a optimistic view on the issue, though. A lot of the current researches are in this field and I believe relating application will soon be available.
This is a great post on cloud security! Keep the good work!