Hi everyone and welcome to another Cloudwards video, My name is Mauricio and today we’ll be
talking about cloud storage security. We’ll go over how safe cloud storage is to use,
what makes a cloud service secure, and we’ll also throw in a few recommendations if you want
to try out a secure cloud storage service. This video is part of our Cloud Storage 101 series,
so make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon so you get notified when the next one drops. If
you’re not quite familiar with how cloud storage works yet, check out our quick explainer video
on cloud storage here. So with that out of the way, let’s jump right in.
So how safe is cloud storage? Well, the short answer is it’s very safe,
as long as you’re using a secure service. I personally use cloud storage every day,
I mean our channel is called Cloudwards after all, and I’ve never had my accounts hacked or even lost
a file. But that’s not the case for everyone. You can easily lose your files if you put your trust
in the wrong cloud service, or if you just have poor security habits like setting “password123”
as your password. So, let’s take a look at what it takes for a cloud service to be secure
and how to best protect your cloud data. First let’s talk a bit about cloud features.
Simply put, there are a few security features a service needs to have to be
safe enough to trust. There can be any number of cloud security features, and some services
offer novel security solutions of their own. But we’ll be looking at the two
most important features, and that’s two-factor authentication and zero-knowledge encryption.
Two-factor authentication or 2FA is one of the most important security features to look for,
and if you use similar passwords across different websites, it can be a life-saver. Basically,
whenever someone tries to log in to your account, you get a notification, either via email or a 2FA
app on your phone. You then need to approve the login yourself, and if it wasn’t you trying to get
in, you can just deny the login attempt. Icedrive, one of our favorite cloud storage
services, used to lack this feature, but now it has it,
Now let’s talk about encryption. Encryption is what stops people from looking at your files.
It scrambles them into a form that’s unreadable without the encryption key. Obviously,
a service needs to encrypt your files, both while they’re on its servers and while they’re traveling
from your device to those servers. But who holds that encryption key can make a huge difference
for the safety and privacy of your files. Zero-knowledge encryption is what you really
want in a service. If a cloud company holds the encryption key to your files,
then it can decrypt them and view them or scan them, and even turn them over to the government.
However, with zero-knowledge encryption in place, you are the only one with access to
your encryption key. This means that not even the cloud service itself can decrypt your files.
And this is much simpler than it looks. All of this encryption and decryption happens
automatically, so it’s not like you have to manually enter your key every time you
want to access a file. So it’s always a net positive, and it doesn’t add any complications
to how you use your cloud storage. For example, Sync.com and MEGA offer zero-knowledge encryption
for every file you upload, so everything on there is always perfectly secure.
Now let’s talk about privacy features. Stuff like privacy policies and terms
of service can be complicated, and frankly, too complex to cover detail in a short video.
Now, you don’t necessarily need to go through a company’s 10,000-word policy,
so we’ll give you a few pointers about what you need to keep an eye out for.
But before we get into privacy policies, make no mistake, every online service collects some of
your data. That’s just how the internet works. For example, if a cloud service says that it collects
your email and payment info, that’s pretty much par for the course. After all, it needs to send
you emails and charge you for the service. But a service might also use cookies to track
how you use its website and where you access it from. If you’re not comfortable with that,
you can always disable cookies in your browser, and it won’t be able to track anything.
You also need to check how a service shares your data. Most services will share user data with
“trusted partners,” which usually refers to stuff like outsourced customer support reps,
or a server provider. But if you see that it shares your data with advertisers, like Google
Drive and OneDrive do, that’s a big red flag that you need to steer clear of that service.
Another important factor is privacy laws. Simply put, you should avoid companies
in countries with intrusive surveillance laws, like the United States, where Dropbox is located.
You should especially steer clear of companies in places like China and Russia, where the government
has a lot of control over the internet. Companies in privacy havens like Switzerland, the EU
or the British Virgin Islands are the best places to store your sensitive data.
For example, pCloud is based in Switzerland, and its servers are in EU countries,
which means your data is protected by some of the best privacy laws in the world.
One important thing to note here is that a zero-knowledge service can’t unlock your files,
so a country’s privacy laws can’t force it to surrender your files, even if it wanted to. For
example, Sync.com might be based in Canada, which is part of the Five Eyes spy network, but it’s
so secure that there’s virtually no chance that anyone but you can ever access your files.
So with all the cloud security and privacy features out of the way,
here are a few cloud security best practices. First, use a strong, unique password. Never
use your cloud storage password for any other online service.
Next, always keep two-factor authentication activated, no matter how annoying you think
it is to push a button on your phone whenever you log in from a different device.
Disable cookies in your browser. Use zero-knowledge encryption.
That means that if a service only offers zero-knowledge for one folder on your account,
always use that folder to sync your files to. And finally, make sure to choose the right
service, one that has all the features we talked about in this video.
And as a final treat, here are a few of our top recommendations for secure cloud storage.
First up is Sync.com. It’s our favorite overall cloud storage, but it’s also the
most secure. Not only does it come with all the features we mentioned, but it covers all of your
storage with zero-knowledge encryption. Plus, it’s even certified to keep sensitive medical
files under HIPAA. See our full Sync.com review video here if you’re interested.
Another very secure service is pCloud. This is one service that really takes your privacy seriously,
and you can trust it to keep your files safe. It’s based in Switzerland with servers in the EU,
so you don’t have to worry about the U.S. government snooping in on you either.
We have a review of pCloud as well, just click right here if you wanna see more about it.
Our last recommendation, but certainly not least, is Icedrive. It’s a fairly new service,
but it’s already become one of the best cloud services, period. It prides itself on keeping
your data private and offers zero knowledge out of the box, as well as two-factor authentication.
Of course, we also have a review of Icedrive here, so go watch that one
if you think it could be right for you. Guys, that is it for this video, we hope you
enjoyed it, and please give us a thumbs up if you did. It really helps the channel and lets us
keep making amazing videos for you guys. Of course, subscribe and click the bell if you
haven’t already; we have a ton of useful cloud storage content on our channel,
so take a look if you’re interested. We also do written articles on our website,
Cloudwards.net, and there are links to more in-depth articles on the topics
we talked about in the description below. Please let us know your thoughts on cloud
security in the comments; we’d love to hear them. As always, thank you for watching.