Backing up your data to the cloud is often seen as a no-brainer. After all, it helps protect you against data loss, all the while letting you access your files from anywhere. While backing up is essential, it’s important to be careful when you upload your files to cloud storage services.
Sure, cloud services are generally secure, but your account can still end up compromised. This may be due to a data breach, a weak password, or even a phishing scam. And if you do find yourself in this situation, you don’t want to risk losing control of your most sensitive data.
Fortunately, the cloud isn't your only solution—there's always the SecureDrive. SecureDrive offers you robust encryption and plenty of ultra-secure storage, making it a solid replacement for backing up online.
We're here to help you make sure your data is as secure as can be. In this article, we’ll talk about the seven types of data that you should avoid backing up to the cloud at all costs, the risks that come with uploading them, and tips on staying safe.
1. Sensitive Personal Information
It’s tempting to upload your personal documents such as your social security numbers, birth certificates, passports, and other digital identification cards to the cloud. Countless people do it, and hey, being able to access your photo ID from anywhere sure is convenient.
Unfortunately, even the most secure cloud storage services are vulnerable to being breached or accessed by malicious actors. If these documents were to be compromised somehow, you'd expose yourself to the risk of identity theft and authorized access. Read more about data loss statistics.
Cybercriminals who gain access to your cloud storage can use these documents to commit identity fraud, open illegitimate accounts in your name, and steal your identity. This can cause severe personal, financial, and legal repercussions—and it’s best to do all you can to avoid this situation entirely.
2. Financial Data
Financial records, such as bank statements, tax returns, and investment portfolios, contain highly sensitive information that should never be backed up to the cloud.
Of course, storing and being able to access your financial data remotely can be really handy. At work, at home, or on vacation, you'd always be able to share it with your financial advisors. However, the risks far outweigh the benefits.
For starters, these days, some of these types of files are easily accessible elsewhere. In the case of bank statements, most banks allow mobile banking, making this advantage somewhat obsolete.
Financial records are a prime target for cybercriminals, and cloud storage services are a frequent hunting ground. Cybercriminals typically use this type of data for identity theft, unauthorized transactions, and sometimes even financial extortion.
Financial data is among the most dangerous in the hands of bad actors—it could, quite literally, cost you a fortune. These types of data breaches are not uncommon, so you need to do all you can to protect your financial privacy and security. Your best bet is to simply avoid uploading these documents to the cloud, and instead use a secure, offline solution.
3. Medical Records
Storing your medical records online in one place is, practically, very convenient. It lets you avoid the hassle of keeping various paper documents safe and having to scramble for them each time you visit a doctor. But uploading your medical records to cloud storage is a risky game, and we strongly advise against it.
The risks associated with storing your medical records on the cloud are substantial. Much like other sensitive personal information, when cybercriminals get their hands on your medical data, your privacy is at stake.
Generally, cybercriminals use stolen medical data to impersonate you in order to make fraudulent medical claims or illegitimately procure prescription drugs in your name.
Keeping your medical records confidential is important, and even more so if you’re currently receiving any form of specialized care. Compromised healthcare data can have serious and long-lasting consequences.
Our recommendation is to avoid uploading your medical records to cloud storage services, despite the convenience it may offer—and to back these records up elsewhere, such as on a secure, encrypted USB drive.
4. Legal Documents
Legal files, such as contracts, wills, affidavits, and power of attorney documents are all highly sensitive. Considering how important they all are, storing these documents in the cloud comes with attached risks. Besides, how often do you need to access your legal documents without prior notice, anyway? Rarely, if ever.
Depending on the type of legal documents that are compromised, the risks can be severe. Cybercriminals can use them for fraudulent activities or leverage them to blackmail you. Certain legal documents falling into the wrong hands can even lead to lawsuits, exposing you to huge financial losses.
The importance of the security and confidentiality of your legal documents cannot be emphasized enough. When compromised, the legal and financial ramifications can be a huge, and expensive, hassle.
For peace of mind, we recommend that you store your legal documents in a secure, offline location to safeguard yourself from cloud storage data breaches.
5. Business Information and Intellectual Property
Storing your business data and intellectual property on the cloud can seem like a good way to maintain backups and share up-to-date versions of your documents with your business partners. It’s easy to see the benefits of keeping your proprietary research, business plans, client information, and such on the cloud.
However, if your trade secrets, proprietary research, client information, or intellectual property are compromised, the consequences can be hard to recover from. You expose yourself to corporate espionage, financial damage, and your business losing its competitive edge.
If client data is part of your compromised files, your business may be in breach of data protection regulations, too. Typically, cybercriminals will try to extort you for financial gain, which can be devastating. Worse still, a savvy cybercriminal can steal your innovations or clients to build or further their own business.
All in all, the dangers of your confidential business information being compromised outweigh the convenience that storing it on the cloud offers. Keeping this data confidential is crucial to ensure the success and longevity of your business, and we recommend storing it securely on an offline encrypted hard drive.
6. Private Photos and Videos
Uploading your personal photos and videos to the cloud feels natural nowadays. In fact, thanks to various smartphone apps, photos, and videos that you capture on your mobile phone are often uploaded to the cloud automatically. That's right—things like Google Photos are all automatic cloud storage.
In theory, this is a very convenient feature that gives you access to your photos and videos across all of your devices. Even if you ever lose your phone, you can just log in on a PC and get your pictures back.
However, this ease of access comes at a staggering cost. When you store your personal photos and videos on cloud storage services, your privacy may be compromised. In the event of a cloud service breach or hack, your photos could be leaked, ending up in the wrong hands.
For many photos and videos, this may not be a major concern. But if you’re someone who values your online anonymity, or for photos and videos of a more personal nature, this can be worrying. Cybercriminals often leverage this type of media for cyber extortion, threatening to leak the images unless you pay a ransom.
Your best bet is to keep your private photos and videos off of cloud storage services altogether. It goes without saying that this should apply to your most precious photos and videos; but to err on the side of caution, keep all your media off of them. Instead, regularly back them up to a secure offline drive.
7. Passwords and PINs
Your passwords, security codes, and PINs are the keys to your digital life. Having them all on the cloud, easily accessible from anywhere, comes in handy. After all, we're all told that we're supposed to have super secure passwords, but who's going to remember a string of random numbers and letters?
In our opinion, however, the risk is simply not worth the reward. You don’t need us to tell you the risks of having your passwords and PIN numbers leaked: all your accounts, from your emails to your online banking, could be vulnerable.
When hackers get their hands on people’s passwords through cloud storage breaches, they tend to sell them online. Then, cybercriminals who specialize in extracting value from specific accounts can obtain your passwords and potentially wreak personal or financial havoc on your accounts.
For your own online safety and security, we recommend never uploading your usernames, passwords, or PIN numbers to cloud storage services. The risks are substantial—and the benefits over keeping them in an offline drive, or even written down on a piece of paper at home, are few.
Choose SecureDrives for an Ultimate Secure Storage Solution
There’s no doubt that cloud storage services are a convenient way to back up and store data for easy access. However, being always online, they’re inherently risky and susceptible to breaches. If the cloud storage is attacked, all of your data could be at risk of being leaked.
Phishing scams mark another way that your cloud storage could become compromised, and then, you'd end up the victim of a targeted cyberattack.
We don't mean to scare you. The problem with many cloud storage services is that they portray themselves as entirely secure, and we want to dispel that notion.
The good news is that you can avoid all of these risks by storing your data on an encrypted offline portable hard drive. We have just the solution for you: our proprietary SecureDrive.
SecureDrive Offers Unmatched Security And Reliability
They provide everything you need from a secure data storage solution, including:
- Military-grade XTS-AES 256-bit encryption
- Inactivity timeout (AutoLock)
- Remote management and data deletion
- Multi-factor authentication and biometric unlock
Thanks to this powerful set of security features, you can rest easy in the knowledge that when you store data on a SecureDrive, no one can access it except those you authorize. Even if your SecureDrive were to be stolen, the thief would be unable to access it due to its multi-factor authentication. Best of all, despite its cutting-edge security, SecureDrives are incredibly intuitive and user-friendly.
SecureDrives are available in three distinct models: SecureDrive BT, SecureDrive KP, and SecureDrive DUO. Each of them have slightly different features to suit your preferences, but all three offer market-leading security and reliability.
If you want to learn more about SecureDrives, or would like to give our products a spin absolutely free of charge, click here! We offer a complimentary 30-day evaluation to all new customers to experience the power and convenience of our products.
Start building a fortress around your most sensitive digital data. Protect your files today with SecureDrive!
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