Cloud technology is often at the forefront of conversations these days, especially in the tech sector. This week, an anonymous hacker perhaps exposed the dark side of cloud solutions by publishing photos of more than 100 naked celebrities — taken, without their consent, from their iCloud accounts, according to recent reports. It has not been confirmed yet that it is Apple’s cloud hosting system at blame, though.
The issue has generated multiple conversations about violations of privacy. While some people blame celebrities for taking the pictures in the first place, many more are questioning a culture where a woman’s body is treated as something she’s not allowed to photograph privately, for herself. Many are also pointing out that choosing to view photos that were not taken consensually is as violating as the act of sharing them.
Other conversations have revolved around cloud security, which has often been a concern for business owners thinking about switching over more of their operations to cloud computing solutions.
“Keeping your data safe is at the core of what we do,” wrote Eran Feigenbaum, the Google Apps director of security, in a recent blog post. Google upgraded several of its security certificates right around the time of the leak.
The fact that multiple accounts — not just Lawrence’s — were hacked seems to indicate that certain cloud solution providers aren’t as secure as previously thought. It seems as if anyone’s personal and private data could be collected if they are targeted specifically by hackers. In some instances, this could mean photos — in other instances, it could be financial information, like credit card numbers. Investigations are ongoing into the privacy breaches — it could have been a security vulnerability, or the hackers could have found email addresses for the victims and successfully guessed the right answers to security questions allowing a password reset.
In most cases, the best idea isn’t to give up on cloud. Rather, individuals and businesses with concerns about security should only choose to work with cloud computing companies that place an emphasis on security measures. Strong passwords are also a must.
Do you think this incident has made people reconsider the importance of better security with cloud hosting? Let us know in the comments. More information like this.