Is data saved in the cloud secure?

Whoops. You spilled hot coffee on your phone and now it won't work. What happens to your photos, your videos, your messages, all the personal information you've stored on your device? You may get lucky and recover them. But who wants luck when you can have a sure thing?

Enter the cloud. It's a network of internet connected computers—or servers—that store your information remotely, rather than on your computer's hard drive. Backing up your phone, laptop, or gaming systems to the cloud means you can access your data wherever, whenever, no matter what happens to a particular device. Want to create a chore list on your phone and have your spouse review it on their laptop? With the cloud, you can.

But wait, with all that precious data floating around, is cloud storage safe? We'll walk you through what you need to know. At Asurion, we don't just take care of your tech, we teach you how to get the most out of it. Here's our guide to how secure cloud storage is.

How secure is cloud storage?

With a name like the cloud, you might think your data is just drifting across the internet and available to everyone. It's not. In fact, security for cloud storage is built-into the system, making it safer than keeping your files on a hard drive where they could be infected by a virus or other forms of malware.

What makes cloud data storage safe?

There is a variety of security measures built into all quality cloud storage systems. We'll walk you through each one.

Encryption

When you back up a file to the cloud, the cloud encrypts it, protecting it with a password or special digital key, so a hacker or any unauthorized person can't access it.

Redundancy

After you save that file, the cloud duplicates it and sends it to multiple servers in different, secure locations. If something should ever happen to one data server, you won't have to worry about losing anything since a copy exists on another.

Security updates

The companies that run those servers regularly update their digital security—just like your iPhone® or Android™ regularly updates the software. Data security experts are constantly searching for weaknesses in their systems, and when they find them, they create software updates that improve the security of cloud storage by eliminating those potential weak spots.

Other ways to improve your data security

Even though cloud storage is very safe, there are a few steps you can take for extra security.

1. Protect your password or encryption key

The easiest way to keep your data safe is to avoid sharing the encryption key or password to your cloud account. With end-to-end encryption, the only way to get to your cloud data is with your key—or the account password.

2. Use two-step verification

Most cloud storage gives you the option to turn on two-factor authentication. It's an extra layer of security that requires that you use both your password and a one-time verification code sent to either your email or phone number to access the cloud. The verification code helps in the case someone else gets their hands on your cloud account password.

3. Monitor your shared data

With the cloud, storing—and sharing—data is easy. You can send secure links that give your friends access to files you want to share. Unlike two-factor authentication codes, these links aren't temporary, so keep track of who has access to what file and remove people's access accordingly.