Cloud Computing and Identity Theft
Cloud computing has grown in popularity over the past few years due to the convenience of the internet. More companies and individuals are now storing their information online rather than company servers or at home on their hard-drive. By using cloud computing, companies and individuals can access their documents from anywhere, rather than having to be at a physical location in order to access it.
Cloud Computing by Definition
Though there is no exact definition, cloud computing is essentially the act of storing documents through an online server rather than a physical one. Therefore your information can be accessed no matter where you are as long as you have connections to the internet.
One of the most well-known cloud computing products out there is offered by Google. With a Google account users can create email accounts, documents to share online, calendars, etc. All of these documents can then be shared with other parties. For large offices, cloud computing is a handy way to get work done in real-time without worrying about who has what company disk.
Identity Theft Risks with Cloud Computing
Instead of storing your files and personal information on your own computer, with cloud computing you are storing your documents and files on someone else’s server. This is the same as storing your credit cards at a trusted family member’s house. If it is not in your possession, you are at risk for it to fall into unwanted hands. Instead of it being your responsibility to watch over your information from hackers or breaches, it now falls on the shoulders of the online server in which you stored your documents.
Some cloud companies will actually share information stored on their servers with third party companies; therefore it is important to examine the privacy rights that are laid out by that company prior to storing your documents on their server. Along with sharing information, online servers can go down; therefore an individual will not be able to access their information while it is stored there. More so, some cloud computing services will often go out of business and shut down their online servers without notice. This leaves companies and individuals without any record or way to retrieve the documents they stored with their service.
Who Is Responsible for Data Breaches?
When it comes to cloud computing, the law gets a little tricky for who is to blame for your security while storing documents with their service. Since a lot of cloud computing services are free and there is no physical contract, often it is the individual storing the information on the server that is responsible in the case of a data breach.
Therefore before you start storing company files or even your own personal files through a cloud computing service, you may want to think twice about where your information is actually going. Though cloud computing is the epitome of convenience, it is also a rather convenient way for identity thieves to steal your information.