In 2014, news outlets and online forums exploded with the story of the celebrity iCloud hack and then again with the huge Sony hack. These two cases ruined the clouds reputation and deterred many people away from using it. However, these were targeted cases and the Cloud services offered through Biel’s is still safe for your business.
iCloud Photo Hack
A big contributor to the hack was the way Apple had the accounts set up. With most online services, you can only try to log in a certain amount of times before the account locks you out, so the hacker only has so many chances to get in but the “Find my iPhone” app and the iCloud did not have this system set up. This meant that the hackers could try an unlimited amount of times to get into an account, and there are computer programs that allow someone to quickly generate and test thousands of potential passwords until the account is entered, this type of hacking is called a “brute force attack”. This is NOT a threat that organizations need to worry about when using a business based cloud service. If someone who does not have authority to enter the company account tries to login they will be locked out from trying endless times. Another important thing to remember is to set strong passwords to all documents and accounts. People have a tendency to make their passwords very personal, which is never a good idea. Celebrities especially, because all of their information is available to the public in magazines, online, and on TV, making it easier to figure out their passwords. In 2005, hackers got into Paris Hilton’s cell phone account gaining access to all of her contacts and personal information. It wasn’t hard for them to do it either; first they knew that she used a sidekick after seeing her commercial for it, second they looked at social media and saw that her dog Tinkerbell was always with her, so they tried “Tinkerbell” as the password and got in.
Sony Hack
Because the hack was carried out by current or past Sony employees, it is not an issue of random hackers but an issue with internal personnel. For additional security tips you can read our post “Document Security: The Fast, Easy, Cheap Way”.
Don’t let other companies mistakes cause you to miss out on something great. If anything, learn from them and take the necessary precautions with your data security. Contact Biel’s today to find a cloud solution that fits your business’ needs. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.