Really? Would Want To Use Clouds? Ha! Try Protecting...

      Really? Would Want To Use Clouds? Ha! Try Protecting Yourself
What’s a cloud? A cloud is a fuzzy definition of loads of servers, all across the country and abroad, servers with hard drives storing all, part, or only bits of your information that really belongs together. With every software manufacturer and developer rushing to force you to use a subscription based model of software that resides on the cloud instead of handing you a CD or DVD with your program (that can be loaded on the computer of your choice), the time is fast approaching when you will have no control whatsoever of your programs or, in fact, the data you post to work with those programs.
It goes like this… you want to write a letter? You open MS Word on your computer and write the letter. In the past, all that could happen on your computer, even a computer unattached to the Internet. But these new programs do not allow that. Now you have to be attached to the Internet to activate the new versions of Adobe Cloud, MS Office 365, QuickBooks Cloud, and a host of others. For those Apple users feeling snug, think again, you are in the same boat here. The argument is that the cloud versions of these programs can be constantly updated by the designers (that’s good, no more lengthy updates). And if you decide to store all your data on the cloud using Dropbox or Kindle or Apple’s iCloud your use of the Internet will go way up. Every time you want to write a Word document, your computer will download Word as an operating program (just the bits your computer needs to get you started). Then it will search for your template (the starting page) from your data location on the cloud. Then you type away not knowing that every word you type is being spell and grammar checked using the connection with the Internet – your letter streaming up to their servers and back. Thinking of using QuickBooks to write a check? Everything you do is passed, back and forth, over your Internet connection: your passwords, your data, your bank balance, everything. Okay, yes, it is all encrypted. Safe as the IRS or government security clearances, right? Right, just about that secure; meaning not very.
Everything we do today goes across the Internet. Every cell phone IM, every email, every Facebook posting or Twitter posting. And where is the Internet pipeline or tube (to use Al Gore’s phrase)? Everywhere globally, Nigeria gets the same access to your emails, files, programs as does Japan and Canada. Try this web site (looks like a map of the night sky): http://internet-map.net/#7-68.87901870596976-91.61581095800433 The big dots are Google servers, but each and every one of these is connected, instantaneously, all the time. Each and every one knows all your data, all your profiles, all your most personal messages, emails and photographs. Now, do they have any malicious intent? Probably not, but as your programs and phone and tablet applications move physically (electronically) off your physical machines (including your phone) you really cannot be surprised if someone, somewhere, gains access to something you thought was yours and yours alone. It isn’t. It’s on the cloud way out of your control.