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Is Your Cloud Storage Solution Safe? Here’s How to Tell

Millions of everyday consumers, professionals, and business owners now rely on cloud storage to share, back up, and store information long-term. And for good reason—cloud storage allows you to access your files from anywhere, and it’s often cheaper than mainstream data storage solutions. It also claims to be highly secure—but how secure is it really?

How Cloud Storage Works

First, let’s start with a briefer on how cloud storage works. When you upload a file to the cloud, you aren’t sending it to some extradimensional, ethereal plane. Instead, you’re sending your data over the internet to an external server, usually a data center owned by the cloud storage company. That data is also likely backed up at multiple data centers, in case one happens to go down. Then, when you wish to retrieve those files, you’ll use the internet to access the data center and retrieve them. In many cases, your data will be encrypted, and in most cases, you’ll have a username and password to protect your specific account. However, consumers may also have the option of layering additional encryption onto their accounts, such as encrypting Google Drive for stronger security. Points of Vulnerability One of the best ways to determine the security of a system is to look for inherent points of vulnerability. These are some of the most common points that exist:    

Data center integrity Data center encryption Internet connection vulnerability Consumer password vulnerability.

How to Determine Cloud Storage Security As you can see, some of these factors are up to the consumer. You’ll need to follow best practices for cybersecurity if you want to make sure your data isn’t compromised by a shoddy internet connection or from an easily guessed password. Why We Desperately Need Better Cybersecurity The Internet of Things is an idea of potentially unending consequence and infinite possibility. Essentially, it is the drive to make every device in our everyday lives communicate with other devices over the internet. It would mean that your entire house can be controlled with your phone and, one day hopefully, your entire life. Everything from your car to your refrigerator will be able to communicate, not only with your phone but other devices and servers all over the world.

New problems are presented by the Internet of Things The potential of the Internet of Things, as you might assume, is positively staggering as an entirely interconnected world would mean unprecedented access to data that can be used to shape the future. It is a goal towards uniform access to the internet and the ability to communicate with other people all over the world. To create a world above the physical, to make an internet without borders. It is the dream and fascination of many tech entrepreneurs and tech writers as we see the day of complete internet coverage draw near. In this time, however, we must consider every eventuality and potentiality if such actualization were to occur. This is a truly ailing problem as the threat of hacking becomes much greater given the sheer number of access points that are being created in pursuit of the Internet of Things. In this article, we are going to examine the multiple reasons why we need better cybersecurity in the incoming Internet of Things. A massive network and the law of averages By the sheer principle of technological evolution, the number of access points that are being created is going to be a real problem for users around the world and a real joy to hackers everywhere. As major tech companies push for greater access, devices must be made and acquired for potential internet users to access the internet. There is no shortage there, however, as the number of smartphones, and companies making them, seem to increase almost daily. It is no small feat to manufacture a nation's weight in phones, but our major mobile companies are doing it with ease. Security is all about approach It is an impossible feat to require all smartphones to be encrypted, but, if anything, this means that it is even more important for us to implement cybersecurity on all our devices. If you are not, then you may very well fall victim to one of the many hackers attempts as their network grows daily. If only by the numbers alone do, we need greater cybersecurity.

The interplay of devices, along with the numbers, show an immediate and growing need for better cybersecurity. The question is, how do we implement such security over that many devices. The answer is we can’t do it uniformly across the globe. Truly, the only way to implement true uniform cybersecurity is to educate anyone and everyone who has access to a smartphone, tablet or computer. Safety is in everyone’s hands now This may sound tedious, but, even a simple pamphlet inserted into every box or a default program that explains, in detail, how to set up your own network security. In truth, most users, in general, do not know how to encrypt files or networks. The basic security standards are barely adequate to deal with the whole host of malicious software that battles around the web. That is why education is so important. The only true way to protect our global data is t Informa every user on the planet and put the power in their hands. Conclusion The Internet of Things is an idea worth getting excited about, but, the risks are not to be ignored. With the mass integration of our devices well underway, we must make sure to understand everything we can about cybersecurity. There is no complete answer, but, we know it starts with education. The numbers alone are enough to make your hair stand on end about the prospect of millions of compromised devices. We must not let hackers and malicious actors steer us from the path of progress. If we stay informed and well planned, then we will ultimately prevail in our race to the future.

Why Should You Consider Incorporating Automation In Your Business Automation is a wonderful way to supplement the efforts of your organization, boost productivity, and ease the burden of minutia on teams. While implementing automation has trade-offs to consider, and can even cause disruption to certain business processes, it also can have immense benefits if implemented correctly.

Adopting automation doesn’t mean using technology to replace or restructure your current company models, processes, and structures. Automated applications can help you address problems within your organization, ameliorate weaknesses, and empower employees. With the use of automation, and other exciting technologies powered by artificial intelligence, we are able to allow employees to concentrate on more nuanced, complex problems and projects. What is there to consider before adopting an automated application? In actuality, you’ll want to consider everything. It’s tempting to adopt a new technology simply because another institution is using it to great benefit. Automated tools work differently for different organizations. As with most things, it’s best to take a measured approach, and to tailor the tools to the job at hand. In order to do so, you’ll need to understand where automated tools may be useful to your organization. Every company has room for improvement. Sometimes automation is the answer, other times training employees is the most productive solution. Often, it’ll be a mixture of activities, tools, and applications that will give you a workable solution to a your problems.

For instance, let’s say that you find that your daily meetings with your IT team is ineffective. Team members often aren’t on the same page at the end of the meeting and topics brought up during discussion rarely identify real weaknesses within the team. In short, the meetings aren’t helping the team improve or progress despite the massive amount of time and dedication poured into them. How do you help address all of these problems.

Can team communications be automated? One solution might be to make meetings weekly instead of daily and improve tracking tasks. Automated applications, like ones that could be found within the team messaging app Slack, could help teams track company projects progress as well as turn in tasks. That way, it’s much easier to be on the same page about projects, and reduce the amount of time it takes to get up to speed. This frees up resources, like all the precious time being spent during meetings, and helps streamline project management. In the above example, a related set of problems is identified and a few related solutions (i.e. changing meeting timeframes and integrating automated project management applications) were offered up as a solution. Then, we hypothesized how this might benefit the organization as a whole. Taking it further, you can surmise that some time might be lost in the short-term as employees have to be trained to use the new tech and adapt the changes a automated application might bring to current and future projects. In analyzing some of the initial drawbacks, we can conclude whether or not an automated application is truly useful to the organization as a whole or if it simply a quick and ineffective solution that fails to address a larger problem. Automation is clearly not a cure all for all of your organization’s inefficiencies. But, it is, at the very least, a very useful tool to your business that can be applied in creative, innovative, and incredibly beneficial ways. Artificial intelligence has propelled tech further and has wrought some amazing automation applications. Your organization could address real weaknesses and inefficiencies in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Conclusion Employees could also benefit from learning to best leverage these tools to accomplish individual, team, and company goals. Using some problem solving skills, some advanced tech, and data-driven operational strategies, automation can be used to further your business’s goals, empower your employees, and strengthen your bottom line. Adopting automation with a plan and tracking the results of the automation is surely a great way to not only experiment with new and innovative tech.

How Social Media Could Shape the Future of Big Data We’re in the middle of the big data revolution. Companies are starting to gain access to more data than ever before, and data analysts are creating and using more sophisticated tools to make predictions about complex systems. But the future of big data is being influenced by many variables—the hard limits of technological growth, supply and demand of data experts, business needs, and even consumer preferences. At the convergence point of these influences is one surprising sector, which could have a bigger role to play in the future of data than we previously could have imagined: social media.

Social Media’s Influence These are just some of the ways social media platforms could dictate the future of big data:

Consumer data access. First, social media companies have access to enormous quantities of data. Our most popular apps have hundreds of millions of users, or in Facebook’s case, more than a billion, and for each of those users, a platform has access to a history of personal posts, likes, interests, and demographic information. There are few other applications that have the potential to gather that much information about so many people, giving social media platforms far more potential for development in the future. Business tools. We also can’t discount the ways that social media companies have made data analytics accessible to more businesses. Facebook tools give entrepreneurs and small business owners a way to learn in-depth features of their target audiences, and an intuitive platform for crunching the numbers. Statistical analysis and data projections once limited to the realm of data scientists and analysts have now become available to even the least experienced amateurs. Social platforms are incentivized to improve accessibility for other businesses, so it makes sense they would have some of the most innovative software. Access to resources. The biggest social media giants around today have tremendous access to resources, and influence to put those resources to good use. Facebook, for example, is now worth nearly half a trillion dollars. With an incentive to learn more about their customers and innovate new, exciting technologies, these companies already have the money and the talent necessary to make those visions a reality. Competition. The sheer number of social media apps is also a factor worth consideration. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram (owned by Facebook), and Snapchat may be the frontrunners for now, but there will always be room for more major players. The competition has two major effects; first, the threat of companies operating in the same space forces each company to stay on top of its game. It encourages faster, more thorough innovation. Second, the number of progressing tech companies multiplies the amount of data and tools available to the public. Privacy concerns and regulations. The influence of social media over the future of data isn’t just about accessibility; social media apps are also drawing attention to issues of consumer privacy, as evidenced by the latest in a long line of scandals. As consumers and policymakers learn more about how apps like Facebook collect and manage data, they’ve become increasingly concerned about regulation and protection.

The EU and other governing bodies are moving to establish firmer policies on data rights, which could have long-lasting consequences for any business involved in big data. The New Rules Already, social media platforms are making waves in establishing the rules and norms of mass data management. Facebook might have access to more consumer data than any other business, especially since it’s capable of tracking you offline, and more social apps are sure to follow in its footsteps. Regardless of whether you’re directly involved in social media, or whether you use socially-gathered data in your own role, it’s going to be important to monitor the development of data norms if you want a leg up on the industry. Big Data and the Bright and Messy Future It began with a simple problem: how do I figure out who is accessing my web site and what they are viewing? I should take a step back, actually, because it began even before that with the grand challenge of trying to crawl and index an exponentially growing number of websites in the early 21st Century. But that challenge was unique to Google and a few other players, while analyzing web site access was more ubiquitous among the burgeoning social media sites that were coming of age around the same time.

The solution to both of these data quandaries came in the form of new ways of storing and processing massive amounts of data that broke away from traditional databases and focused on distributed data processing techniques. These techniques also didn’t rely on supercomputers that were only affordable by nation states, but instead could be built from often unreliable commodity computers and disk drives.

And today these technologies have already become a critical part of lowfriction startups that can be built to solve new types of problems. More established enterprises and organizations are also investing heavily in this next wave of pervasive data analytics and expect that investment to continue to grow over the next decade.

The possibilities of big data are tantalizing and palpable. Businesses can start to analyze their buildings and correlate AC systems with weather patterns, reducing costs and enhancing planning for heat islands and other effects. Wearable health monitors can provide longitudinal data that feeds into medical planning and epidemiological estimates. Cities can detect road wear patterns and proactively improve responses, improving the lives of people and reducing vehicle wear. Web sites and mobile apps can better contextualize the information that helps you work and be entertained. Perhaps even more intriguing is the emerging possibility of advancing intelligent systems design and training using big data. Recent improvements in algorithms like simulated neural networks have been combined with big data sets to show human-like or better performance on a number of tasks where advances had been stalled for a number of years and incremental improvements were only being made using extremely complicated software architectures. Automatic image understanding is one such area, but large-scale language translation has also shown advances. In each case, big data collections were a prerequisite, but cheap hardware and big data software infrastructure were important components to the results. We are all familiar with the narrative theme of technology gone awry, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Terminator. Almost all literature and video storytelling relies on conflict of some sort, and this one is known as Man vs. Technology, though perhaps we need to update that to People vs. Technology in a more modern world. Big data carries risks, too. We already routinely see data breaches due to hackers exploiting our connected world to gather large-scale personal information. Here we see an area where security, privacy and even physical safety collide with big data. If we can’t secure data and safeguard privacy, everything from transit systems to our physical safety are at risk. For instance, stalkers and thieves are already mining social media for clues about our locations and habits. And inverting this, big data technologies are also being used to detect breaches to find bad guys.

One of the most interesting risks also carries with it the potential for enhanced reward. Don’t they always? That is, some economists see economic productivity largely stabilizing if not stagnating. Industrial revolutions driven by steam engines, electrification, telephony, and even connected computing led to radical reshaping of our economy in the past and leaps in the productivity of workers, but there is no clear candidate for those kinds of changes in the near future. Big data feeding into more intelligent systems may be the driver for the next economic wave, though revolutions are always messier than anyone expected.

By, Shriya S.H 2nd sem MCA DEPT Bangalore Institute of Technology