Eugene Computer Geeks Blog

When using laptops and other gadgets, such as tablets and smartphones, the need to transfer or store your data is inevitable. And the need for data storage increases when laptops are available for affordable prices, since discounts like Dell coupons and various promotions are offered by manufacturers and retailers.

To meet the need for data storage, cloud storage is trending in the consumer market and the number of cloud storage service providers is increasing. There are many options available for us to upload our files, documents, photos and music to use them later. People love to use these services as they can keep their files secure and access them at any time.

Advantages of Uploading Files to the Cloud

There are many advantages of uploading files to the cloud. This not only creates a backup of our files but also makes the file accessible from anywhere at any time. All we need is an Internet connection and a computing device, and we can easily access all our files. In addition, some cloud storage service providers also allow us to stream the music directly to our devices, so we can enjoy them without downloading to the device.

Why You Need to Encrypt Your Files Before Uploading Them to the Cloud

Despite the advantages of using cloud storage solutions, one must know that uploading files to the cloud can be risky. The cloud is also hackable, just like your PC. Uploading files to the cloud doesn’t guarantee privacy or security of the files. In the past we have seen many such cases and even the big shot companies got hacked.

Recently, the iCloud (the Apple cloud storage service for Apple users) account of a technology reporter was hacked. This hack raised many concerns about the security of cloud storage services. Dropbox, another famous cloud storage company, has faced a security lapse multiple times. This year a Dropbox security breach was stated. Before this on June 2011, all Dropbox accounts were left wide open. Anyone could use any password to login to any Dropbox account, which was a great security lapse.

3 Ways to Store Your Files on the Cloud in the Encrypted Form

From these incidents we can learn the lesson that we cannot completely rely on cloud storage solutions. Besides uploading the files as it is, we should take the necessary steps to minimize the damage when the cloud is hacked. For this, we should encrypt the files before uploading them to the cloud. So our data will remain unreadable even if someone has gained access to our account. Below are some tools that you can use to encrypt data on your cloud.

BoxCryptor

BoxCryptor is the first option on our list because it is considered the best tool to keep your files encrypted on the cloud. It is available on multiple platforms. The beauty of BoxCryptor is that you don’t have to worry about the encryption and the decryption of the files. All you need to do is give a password with which the files will be encrypted and place the files that you want to store on Google Drive, SkyDrive or Dropbox. BoxCryptor creates encrypted versions of the files and the cloud services stores only the encrypted versions of the file.

TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is another useful tool that can be used to keep the files in the encrypted form on Dropbox. TrueCrypt is capable of creating an encrypted file container. This file container acts like a huge file and it can be placed in the Dropbox folder. This file container can be mounted as a drive oin your computer so you can easily add and remove files in it. All the files added and removed to the drive are also added and removed from the container and likewise also synced with the Dropbox account. The file container is encrypted with a password and no one can look into the container without the password. This helps you securely place your files on Dropbox.

Encrypted Archive File

This is the most basic and perhaps most manual method of saving your files in the encrypted form on the cloud. All you need is an archive file making application that supports encrypting the archive with a password. The procedure is very simple. Take a file that you want to upload to the cloud. Place that file in an archive, encrypt the archive with a password and upload the encrypted archive to the cloud. When you need the file back, simply download the file; extract the file with the archive application using the password you used to encrypt the archive. This method is quite tedious and is, therefore, not recommended.

Conclusion

Using cloud storage solutions can make our lives easier as there are a lot of advantages to using cloud storage. However, like all other computer products, cloud also suffers from privacy and security breaches. So, before uploading files to the cloud make sure that you encrypt them. This will help you keep your files secure even if your cloud account is compromised.

Google ChromeBook Laptop

If you are tired of running virus scanners, clean-up utilities, disk defragmenters, firewalls, and tired of having to ask a relative or neighbor to get your machine working again (or worse- having to pay someone to do it) then cloud-based computing may be for you.  ChromeOS is designed to be an extremely fast operating system, start up in less than 10 seconds, and resume from sleep instantly.

One very important thing to note is that most Chromebooks do not have much storage space.  I haven’t seen one with anything bigger than a 16 gigabyte solid state drive. However, you can use online storage, like Box.com and Google Drive.  Setup for Chromebooks is suprisingly simple:  start it up, connect to your wifi network, and you’re ready.  A Chromebook is a fantastic laptop to give to someone who isn’t computer-literate.  For advanced users, it may not be the best laptop.  You can’t run Windows applications, and most “applications” (which are just shortcuts for a website) require an internet connection.

The Chromebooks were designed with security in mind: websites run sandboxed which means that malware can only affect what’s inside the sandbox, and can’t affect anything that is outside of it.  The Chromebooks also have some features which would be extremely appealing to consumers, like it’s fast boot- the Chromebook is ready to be used in less than 8 seconds.  Cloud storage is also a very convenient feature built into the Chromebook- you can take your files anywhere (with an internet connection, anyway).

There are also some disadvantages to Chromebooks.  Is it the best idea to rely primarily on Google’s servers, with all the news of break-ins and data loss?  The Chromebook is also linked with your Google account: Google could potentially collect more information about you this way.  You also have less choice when using a Chromebook.  Would you buy a laptop with an operating system where you had to use the default browser?  To take advantage of most of the Chromebook’s features, you also need a good internet connection.  Most Chromebooks come with Verizon 3G internet built in, but Verizon only gives you 100 megabytes/month.  100 megabytes can go pretty quick.

The Chromebook essentially is a web browser.  It can’t run Windows applications, however, but you can access other machines running Windows on your Chrome device.  With Chrome Remote Desktop, a web application for Chrome, you can access and run software stored on any of your other computers, over the internet.

Overall, the Chromebook would be a fantastic laptop to give to someone who isn’t very computer-literate.  They’re fast, offer tons of web applications, backs up with Google’s cloud storage automatically, and have anti-virus and security measures built in.  They also automatically update, so the user doesn’t need to worry about constantly needing to update their laptop.  Chromebooks also have very good battery life- 6 to 8 hours of usage.  Most users primarily use web applications and spend most of their time on the internet.  The Chromebooks would fit the needs of most users, but the more advanced users may not like the operating system.