Do you have important pictures or documents stored on the cloud? The cloud has become an increasingly popular way to store files, but are they safe?
Many people automatically upload their photos to cloud storage without ever worrying that something could happen to them. However, cloud storage is not a surefire protection for your files. You can be at risk of being hacked and experiencing breaches of security. Do you have safeguards in place to make sure that your files are protected in case a security breach happens to you?
Before choosing a cloud service, be sure you have safeguards in place to keep your important data secure. Here are the three things you must do to escape a cloud disaster with minimal losses and cost.
Choose a Secure Password
According to an article in the New York Times, 76% of data breaches happen due to weak or stolen usernames or passwords. In order to make our passwords easy to remember, we use words that are familiar to us like a pet’s name, our birth date or even just our first name. Unfortunately, passwords like these are very easy for hackers to exploit.
The trick to using a secure password is finding a word that has no relation to you and is relatively long. For example, you may want to choose the word hamburgers as a starting point. It is long and has no ties to you, unless you won the national hamburger eating contest.
Don’t stop with a single word password though. You will want to add another word, number and symbols if possible. If you are afraid you will forget the password, try doing something similar for different accounts. For example, your Gmail account password may be hamburger19email, and your Facebook password may be hamburger19social.
Another tip is to turn some of the letters of your password into numbers. A good example would be turning social into s0cia!. Also, use a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters. Even if you have an excellent password, it is a good idea to update it to something new every few months.
Backup Your Data
It is a good idea to back up all of your photos and documents offline on a regular schedule. You are probably familiar with the traditional way to backup your files – just save them to an external hard drive in case something happens to your computer or your cloud service is compromised.
You may have a more difficult time figuring out how to save files that are on your phone. However, there are a few different programs out there that allow you to back up your phone to an offline program.
Many people also choose to use cloud backup for the data they have on the cloud. This ensures that your important information is in more than one place. If you lose the information in one storage place, you will still be able to access it from cloud backup.
Get Cloud Insurance
Cloud insurance is a great way to protect yourself financially in case a cloud disaster does occur. A cloud insurance policy pays you if the cloud provider does not hold up their end of the agreement to keep your files safe.
If you have data that is important to you such as photos you may want to choose cloud insurance that offers automatic backup of your information, rather than financial compensation.
Sometimes insurance can be included in the purchase of your cloud service. However, you will probably want to secure cloud insurance through a 3rd party company.
Technology is making it easier to store all of your important photos, documents and photos in one place. However, there are steps you must take to ensure your files remain safe. Make sure that you have a secure password, backup all of your documents and secure cloud insurance. With these three precautions in place, you put your fears of a cloud disaster to rest.
