Is your Cloud Secure? – No! Just see what happened to Wikileaks

As I write this blog I had read a few cables released on Wikileaks. Having very less political background it is quite tough for me to make an assessment on the ethical nature of releasing these cables. Is it free speech? or is it espionage? These are not the questions that really trouble me. What concerns me much is about Web Democracy and security of information on the Web.

I have been assuming that the Web 2.0 is all about democracy and it the netizens who decide what has to and what not to be published in the social web. Little did I realize that governments (individuals) or companies have superior power to freeze the services offered to you on the net.

Consider this case. You have all your applications on the web (Your emails, contacts, documents, account details, transaction details, files etc.., etc..). For some reason your account has been freezed for use; can you imagine the impact! And if you thought that might not happen to you since you are not affiliated to any political or terrorist organization or interests, RETHINK!

Your account may get freezed

• If your company gets into legal or political action (In case you use a company account)
• If your service provider gets into legal or political action
• If your country is banned for service export by the Service Provider’s nation
• If your country bans the service provider (this is not new. Google Docs was blocked when I was in China)
• If your content is illegal (Governments may be able to subpoena the data without a search warrant). How much effort do we spend to scrutinize the legality of the documents we hold or emails we send.
• etc…..

From hardware reliability perspective the cloud may be safe. But on political and legal grounds the cloud may not be safe necessitating the need for redundancy. How much time and effort (as a individual user) do we really spend to read the terms and conditions before using a service? They are clearly drafted to protect the service provider and the provider is not obligated to do anything for you. Need to rethink!

Note: The blog is based completely on my personal opinion. No proper research was made to assertion the facts. Please do your own research before deciding.