Is our data safe in Google Drive?
We are living in an era of cloud computing, in order to save money on hard drives most of our personal data is being stored online. Big companies including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox and many more are providing users with terabytes of space at a fraction of a cost compared to purchasing a hard drive. The question remains, is our data safe on these cloud storage services?
Your data, your responsibility
Cloud storage is by far an excellent innovation that brings affordable storage to the consumers and a platform which allows users to access data from any device no matter where they are. This has enabled users to store as much data on cloud servers as they can without thinking about security.
There are various aspects to consider when moving all your data to these cloud services. Since a lot of this data is personal such as pictures, videos, work related data and so on, it is extremely important to know whether your data is safe or not. Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud storage service used by millions of people due to the popularity of Google apps and OS. The dangerous thing is that not a single megabyte of data you upload is safe.
It does not matter if you have 2-Step verification enabled in your account or not because Google does not guarantee any protection related to the data you store on Drive. And the reason is quite simple; the company has to comply with Government laws so they can share your data with any Government Institution if deemed necessary. All your personal information, family pictures, videos and work related data will be in the hands of hundreds of officials if they want to see it.
Although Google tries to ensure that your data is safe and is never lost but unforeseen circumstances can lead to loss of data. If your data is deleted then there is no way that you can get it back, but the service provider can. It’s not like you own the server, so backing up your data is solely your own responsibility.
5 million accounts hacked
Google users have one account for all services so you use the same account for Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Calendar and so on. Just last year, almost 5 million Gmail accounts were hacked which means that hackers got access to Google Drive data of nearly 5 million people. More so, the hacked database was dumped on various public forums for other people to access your data. This can result to personal information theft, identity theft, stolen blueprints and much more.
Ever since the hack, Google has taken some important measures to improve the security of its sites, but your account is always exposed to another threats like phishing and social engineering. Apple, which also takes security seriously, suffered “CelebGate”, one of the most popular hacks of all time. It resulted in leaked personal photos of more than 90 celebrities. Hackers managed to hack Apple’s iCloud so no one can stop them from hacking Google’s services as well.
Take matters into your own hands
While Google Drive is safer than many other cloud services but it is still not as safe as it should be. There are still vulnerabilities which need attention. One prime example would be that when you delete something from your Google Drive, it stays somewhere in the network. This is how hard drives work, the data is deleted in front of our eyes but deep inside it stays there and more data is overwritten on the same blocks. So one way or another your data can still be accessed. So, what now?
Encrypt your Google Drive data
Your data is definitely not safe on Google Drive, so your best choice is…make it useless for others. Encryption is the way. There are different ways to do it, look at Encryption to rely on . But, of course, our suggestion is do it the safer, easier, and cheaper way, use the SMiD Cloud device.
