Carney Forensics Blog

Good Question: What Is The Cloud?

I was interviewed last night about “The Cloud” by WCCO’s Heather Brown in her popular Good Question series.

Heather Brown WCCO

Click on the photo below to read my interview with Heather Brown.  You are sure to pick up a couple of cybersecurity tips you can use to protect yourself.

What is the Cloud?

Most are referring to the Apple product, iCloud , when they talk about “the Cloud”.  iCloud is an online service that allows people to store their music videos and photos on remote servers. But experts say the cloud is far more vast and complex than just Apple.

“The cloud is a network of services provided by computer servers on the public internet,” said John J. Carney, a digital forensics expert with Carney Forensics. “It can sometimes be thought of as the Internet or, alternatively, the web.”

Carney says people are probably on the cloud every hour they’re on the Internet.  “Most people may not specifically be aware they’re using the cloud,” he said.

“It’s new technology, and it’s hard to understand what it means and how it’s used,” Carney said.  We recover evidence from it in our cloud forensics practice area.

Carney believes storing information on the cloud is safe as long as you use a strong password. Two-factor authentication, where you enter a password and then you get a text message — or email message — with a special code you enter as well, is by far the best option for more protection.

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