Why the cloud is more secure than your computer

A big cloud that contains our data? As soon as we hear the word “cloud,” we have the image in our heads that data is floating above us and is therefore no longer accessible to us or even unprotected. This is primarily due to the fact that we know too little about cloud technology. So let's uncover the cloud myth together and find out where our data is really safe.

What does data security actually mean?

The term data security describes the general protection of all data of a person or a company. This could include personal data, such as your name or birthday. On the other hand, it can also be data from your company or your customers (e.g. construction plans). There are three important goals when it comes to data security. The first goal is confidentiality, which means that only authorized persons have access to your data. The second goal of data security is data integrity. It protects you from manipulation and technical defects. The ultimate goal is availability. Your existing data must be accessible to you if necessary.

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

Local data backup

All goals seem easier for us to pursue when we back up our data privately on our computer, hard drives, or local servers. Local backup solutions have the advantage that we are the administrators ourselves. We therefore have control over our stored data. On the other hand, we are also fully responsible for them. Who doesn't know the situation? You work on something for three hours and suddenly the computer crashes and all data is lost — and so is your working time. In addition to such technical faults, external attacks or environmental influences, such as a fire, can also cause data to be lost, deleted or stolen from our local data carriers.

In a typical craft business, local servers are often used to back up data. The servers are physically present in the company and belong to you. This allows you to access the server via LAN, WLAN and also via the Internet via VPN access. However, in order to ensure data security goals, additional security measures are essential, which the company must take care of independently. For example, encrypted WLAN signals, strong passwords and virus scanners, which are intended to protect against third-party interference, should be considered.

Data backup in the cloud

The opposite of local data backup is cloud-based data backup. Here, our data is backed up via the Internet, via the cloud, with the help of professional cloud providers. As soon as access to the Internet is available, our data is accessible from anywhere in the world. The availability of the data is therefore significantly higher than with local data backup, as the data is independent of location. In addition, changes you make to your software are usually automatically saved in the cloud.

This means that even if the computer crashes, you usually do not lose any data. In addition to extremely high security requirements, cloud providers also offer the advantage that updates and server maintenance are carried out automatically.

Did you know that you already use the cloud every day? WhatsApp or email programs are just two examples of cloud-based applications.

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Six-level secured data center

And where do cloud providers collect our data? In so-called data centers (German: data centers). They have their very own infrastructure. The top requirement for such data centers is security and maximum protection against fire, technical faults and external attacks by hackers. Google's data center, for example, is secured by the following six levels.

1. Signage + fences

Anti-climbing fences, thermal cameras, touch-sensitive fence

2. Protecting inputs

• Main entrance + cameras
• 24/7 security service on foot and in the car
• Extendable floor anchorages so that no truck can crash in

3. Identity check

Personal IDs + Retina scanner + only 1 person through an access door at a time

4. Security monitoring center

Employees continuously check the collected data from camera systems, accesses, etc.

5. The data center floor

Only less <1% of Google employees ever get into the space
→ only certain technicians + engineers are allowed to be there at all. This is where access to the server's hard drives is located; data is encrypted.

6. Data destruction

After use, hard drives are not simply unplugged from power and placed in drawers. They are erased multiple times and then destroyed (shredded)

Here you can see one such data center in the video.

Conclusion

Whether local or cloud — data security has become a sensitive issue in today's digital society. That is why we find it all the more important to offer a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the various data backup solutions. Because as a society, we want to protect our personal data, sensitive customer data and the associated privacy. In the end, it can be stated that the integrity (protection against manipulation and technical defects) and availability of data is significantly higher with professional cloud providers than with local data backup. Simply put, hackers will have much bigger problems getting access to Google servers than to your private computer's local hard drive. If you want to be doubly secure, you can, for example, store local backup copies of the most important data on an external hard drive in addition to the cloud. It is also extremely important to use strong, randomly generated passwords and to change them regularly — whether in the cloud or on your local computer.

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