Data Security when using cloud storage.

I have to say that I have never trusted or used any online storage when I could avoid it and I stick with external backup devices which are only ever powered up/connected during backups.

I was just reading this article on ElReg and immediately thought about the way in which Elon's army purloined US Citizens personal social security data a while back. I wonder to what extent people who do use online storage set their trust in their data being safe?

It all depends on what you are doing and how much you trust someone else's computer.

Cloud storage in my opinion is fine for non-proprietary or personal information but nothing else.
If you have no choice but to upload that information, then you should encrypt it

Think back to that gentleman who got a permanent ban from Google for sending a picture of his baby to his doctor using the Cloud. He got a police investigation as a result despite doing nothing wrong, all because the system decided it was bad.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/g...

Safe from who? It is interesting that you mention Elon Musk as an example of invading privacy when it is the UK government who you need to be worried about, and in fact, Elon Musk, has probably done more to champion privacy than most.

Basically - as things stand:

If you want to

protect your data from hackers: Apple, Google, Microsoft, are all safe bets.
protect your data from snooping governments and court orders: consider services like Proton Drive, rsync.net, etc, coupled with countermeasures such as not keeping passwords written down or on insecure devices.
protect your data from intelligence agencies: don't use cloud backup whatsoever.

i don't trust online storage, that is why I don't use it. I back up documents on different formats and in different places,l but never online.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Safe from who?

I made the mistake of 'voicing' my reaction to the article to which I posted a link. Once upon a time I would have had a conversation with my wife on the subject but I no longer have that luxury and you stand in her stead .

"Safe from who" is the very question to which I have no answer other than everyone. It strikes me that personal data is one of the most valuable assets traded in the world. I mentioned the theft of that data by people under the control of Elon Musk because I see it as an indication of things possibly to come to us in the future given that there are as many gullible people voters in this country as in the USA.

I'm not worried about a few family photos and such like but I am worried about all the security information held on my computer e.g. account details, passwords etc. and it was system backups that I particularly had in mind.

The fact that I am presently being blackmailed (as I see it) by Microsoft to buy a new computer when I don't need one doesn't make me feel confident that my best interests are protected by anyone but me. The global tech businesses will always be slaves to the dollar.

I agree, I understand what you mean about MS and black mail, but there are options, You could just stay on Windows 10, if your machine is capable of running Windows 11, even if not supported by MS, you can do that Rufus is good for doing for that.
The other option is to go for a Linux distro if it suits you, or you could do what I did and change to Mac

I am not worried about a few photos either, I even got passwords on a password manager, which is in the cloud, I do so because it is convenient, but still worry a little about it. My problem is storing personal documents online,

Sadly, it is the time of big tech companies, and they will grab as much data from as much as you stick up on their services. But they are not the only ones who want data, go into most supermarkets or other shops for that matter, and they want you to give them as much info as they can get away with having. That is why I tend not to bother with loyalty cards. Fed up with the spying and data grabbing that goes on.

A strange choice of words. Microsoft are not forcing you to buy a new computer. You can carry on using your Windows 10 computer, but it may become insecure.

This is no different to running an old version of Mac or Linux - they also reach end of life and newer versions are not supported on old hardware indefinitely.

In either case - you need to buy something to remain current - either new hardware and/or new software.

I'd suggest just paying Microsoft the $30 for another year of Windows 10 support.

Like I said - it is the current UK government who want to reduce security of cloud/online storage - not the US government.

Data sovereignty can become a real issue when that data gets sensitive enough - see https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366629871/Micros...

Government bodies in the UK and probably EU-wide have been (probably wishfully) working under the assumption that framework agreements with the public cloud providers owned by US companies were enough to kick the can down the road, but they aren't, and it turns out there's nothing preventing Microsoft disclosing data they keep to the US government on request other than "we've not been asked to do that before", and whether the US government has the appetite to kill the global market for US-based SaaS vendors.

Agreed - bit naive of UK/EU governments and public bodies to have thought that this was never the case.

It works the other way though - regardless of the mechanisms in place by Microsoft, if they have data centres in a particular country, and your data ends up there, there is nothing stopping the country in which the datacentre resides seizing control

Nor is there anything stopping anyone logging in and accessing the data from around the world either - so you have to trust that Microsoft/AWS/Google have their super-admin accounts closely guarded.

Often even 2nd and 3rd line support at these providers have a surprising amount of access.

There are plenty of cloud storage backup options where you get to pick your own key and your data gets encrypted before it even leaves your computer.

It can't get much more trustworthy than that.