In 12 months I've had issues with 2 small thumb memory drives that Ive been inserting into the usb port on my MBP. Luckily I backed up to the cloud and didn't lose many files.

 

For under $2 a month I get 50gb and thus the cost is negligible. 

 

Now I dont bother with the external hard drives. Is there any risk of my data being corrupted or lost on apple icloud. I presume they have a secure network that is backed up. Is there any risk that my data can be hacked on the cloud?

 

 

 

 

iCloud comes with the same pros and cons as any other cloud services:

 

PROs:

• Hardware and redundancy is handled by pros. Chances that your data would be corrupted or lost because of hardware failure is infinitesimally smaller than any solution you'd setup yourself
• Data is accessible from any device, anywhere in the world
• Usually comes with auto backup tools so you don't have to remember to backup your data

CONs:

• You're not the owner of the server. If one day the company decides to change the rules (make you pay, close your account... or just goes under) then you're SOL
• Cloud services are an attractive targets for hackers. iCloud has been hacked (although to be faire it involved a lot of social engineering, and not just a technical bypass of the security measures). And your account itself could be compromised even if iCloud is totally secure (e.g.: Another site is hacked and you used the same username/password than your iCloud account on that one).
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud_leaks_of_celebrity_photos

The recommendation: Use Cloud backup as an addition of hardware backup. For example: auto Cloud sync of your working files + daily/weekly backup of your data on an extenal drive stored separately from the computer.

A good summary.

 

I am still hesitant to put real critical data  to a cloud in non encrypted form.

I don't even want the cloud operator to be able reading it.

If I use it as backup for critical data I do that in an encrypted container.

And only as a backup. Original source for critical data is local.

Not convenient but safety first.

 

Different story for photo/video collections and the like.

One more critical point about storing your data in the clods is the poor internet access in some places. Suppose you are in a building without internal WiFi and without access to your 4G; how do you access your data?

 

And many place sin Thailand have no Internet at all.

 

And then comes the often very low speed at which you have to download your data.

 

Today, external storage is so small and has such high capacity, why take the risk of cloud services?

 

I appreciate all the replies. 

 

This week I purchased the new apple iphone 7 plus. I like the fact that icloud works on both my laptop and phone and that my photos and data are backed up to the cloud on my phone automatically. For less than $2 a month its a bargain. 

4 minutes ago, davidst01 said:

I appreciate all the replies. 

 

This week I purchased the new apple iphone 7 plus. I like the fact that icloud works on both my laptop and phone and that my photos and data are backed up to the cloud on my phone automatically. For less than $2 a month its a bargain. 

Just remember, if all the celebs can have their iCloud accounts hacked and their intimate pics taken and shared around everyone via the Internet so can you

Nah, celebs are generally dumber than the average human.


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1 minute ago, DaveBKK said:

Nah, celebs are generally dumber than the average human.

Which by definition means they're in the dumber 50% of the population. That's still an awful lot of people - yourself excluded, of course

Nah I'm pretty dumb. But smart enough not to click on links in emails and enter any passwords off those links.


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