Data Privacy - $20B Nightmare
Trusting popular cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive can have terrible consequences. According to a survey of IT professionals, 90% of their clients have suffered ransomware attacks. Ransomware attacks cost companies $20 billion in 2020.
The current cloud computing space is dominated by a few large companies. The big three are: Microsoft Onedrive, Google Drive and Dropbox. Amazon and Apple are sometimes mentioned as well. Be it as it may, the cloud storage space still has 59% of all users of storage. The global public cloud computing market was set to exceed $330 billion in 2020.
In 2020, in terms of adoption of cloud sharing services by users, Onedrive has the top spot (70%) due to its wide adoption by corporations, followed by Dropbox (46%) and Google Drive (40%). In general, all offer similar services and are useful for collaborating. With Google and Onedrive, there are additional benefits of incorporating the files with their suite of media and office services. However, this is where problems may arise.
Global Pandemic: Data Privacy More Important Than Ever
With the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people are working remotely from home. Cloud storage companies are used as virtual offices. It’s easy to collaborate on documents and projects because everything is online and updated right away. There is no need to exchange paper documents or emails or lose usb drives between the cushions of your couch.
If these services are so easy to use and attractive, why is the market adoption only 59%? The key answer is a lack of data privacy!
- One of the earliest uses of Gmail data was to push advertisements to users based on the content of the emails.
- Facebook admitted storing the login details of millions of users on plain text files.
- You may remember compromising photos of celebrities being leaked from iCloud.
- Or how about the Equifax leak of close to 150 million private records of Americans?
- And many, many more data leaks occur every year
These leaks have created legal ramifications in Washington DC about how much control Big Tech has on our lives due to the data they possess. It needs to be addressed. Not by legislation, but by improved technology.
Having this data exposed can result in a ransomware attack for businesses and consumers.
“A Lesson I Learned the Hard Way.”
You never know until it happens to you: A user’s story
The author prefers to remain anonymous.
I have always been a careful person. Naturally, I back up every file. My cloud storage of choice is Google Drive… or it was anyway. It was easy because it was tied to my Gmail and a one-stop shop for all my needs. It was convenient, but in hindsight, maybe a bit too convenient.
One day not long ago, something strange happened when I started my laptop. I was presented with a clock showing 7 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds with a number to call. The clock started counting down. I tried to open a few applications, but no luck. Nothing worked.
To be safe, I didn’t want to use my personal cell, so I went to the nearest gas station, bought a calling card and called the number. A man with a heavy accent told me he had been expecting me. He revealed some of the details in my Google Drive files, so I knew he was for real. The hacker said he knew I wasn’t rich, so he would charge me “only” $15,000 to get back all my files and the use of my laptop. If I didn’t pay him, he would publish any document he wished from my Google Drive on various social media accounts.
Now, the laptop was not my personal laptop. It’s used for my job as an accountant at a local startup. On top of that, this was happening right in the middle of tax season!
Did I want documents containing the sensitive information of our clients and vendors on social media?!?
This thief proceeded to give me precise instructions which would make it easy for him to receive the money and be untraceable. He said “the clock has started” and hung up the phone. When I got home, the laptop screen was counting down from 6 days 23 hours 15 minutes 59 seconds.
I called the police, but they said they couldn’t do much to help. In fact, they told me about a case three states away where the state police had this situation happen to them. They explained I had been a victim of a ransomware crime and these crimes are happening more and more these days.
At this point, with time winding down, the pressure was on. I decided to report the incident to my boss, the founder and CEO of the company. He wasn’t happy, but he didn’t panic and he said that, even though this was a very unfortunate occurrence, he did not think it was my fault as he knew I was a responsible employee. He also said the company has cyber insurance for this purpose, but it would take some time to get the $15,000.
In the end, we were barely able to make the transfer with just 2 hours remaining on the clock. I called the hacker and he said the sweetest words I have ever heard, “The laptop is yours!”.
When I returned to the laptop, the clock was gone.
The nightmare was over, but this could happen again if I didn’t take action.
Using encrypted, zero knowledge cloud storage reduces your risks
How could I avoid this happening to me? If I only knew then about using an encrypted and zero knowledge cloud storage service, I would have been protected. With a service like that, the company doesn’t have your personal information or access to your login and password. These companies don’t have access to our data since it is encrypted even to them. This is the change I needed to protect myself and my company.
The Missing Piece
There are a number of companies in the storage space right now including Siacoin, Sync.com, pCloud and Tresorit. They offer similar services such as Sync Folder, File Link Sharing, Folder Sharing, and Versioning. In terms of security, they use AES 256-bit encryption at rest and TLS/SSL protocol during transfer. The pricing can vary from very basic free plans to ones costing $500 a year.
One of the best players in the game is zero knowledge cloud storage Opacity.
Opacity Storage provides data storage that is encrypted using blockchain technology. There is a 10GB free storage and file sharing plan to get you started and try it out.
The best thing is that Opacity is built on the Ethereum network. Using blockchain’s decentralized nature means your payment is anonymous so you can’t be threatened by hackers. Chunks of your files are distributed across multiple computers known as nodes. As a result, hackers even getting into systems like this is highly improbable. Opacity generates a special 128 character account handle personal to you, giving you complete control of your files. According to Better Buys, it will take forever™ using current tech to crack the handle. This means only you know what is in your account.
Because of the public/private key pairing, if you wish to share a file, the other person only has access to that file and nothing else. And paying with Opacity’s OPCT token guarantees complete privacy - no personal details like name and address are provided to the file storage company.
The reality is that trusting big tech with your files is a serious risk
Big tech’s irresponsibility is a real risk for all of us. Take back control of your files, your devices, and your life by switching to a more secure platform.
About Opacity
Founded in 2018, Opacity Storage is dedicated to online data privacy and security. Online data breaches continue to be a major consumer risk. Opacity is reducing this risk by removing the need to provide personal payment data and by decentralizing files stored online. For more information, visit opacity.io and follow @Opacity_Storage on Twitter.
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