In today’s digital world, we’re faced with many security issues and data vulnerabilities.\u00a0 Most likely you’ve experienced a computer virus at some point that made you feel extremely vulnerable.\u00a0 In fact, you’ve probably heard about the 50 million personal Facebook accounts<\/a> that were compromised recently. This means that users personal information like addresses, phone numbers, photos, and other information could have been stolen.<\/p>\n Given my experience in information technology and website development, I have seen firsthand the efforts that hackers make in attempts to steal or corrupt a person’s website, application, or other data source. In the last 20 years, I have personally managed, and web mastered several hundred websites and applications. What this means in more non technical terms, is I’m basically the guy holding all the keys to the online business and information. I have seen hackers install malicious scripts in everyday plug-ins that look normal from the outside,\u00a0 but allow them to inject ads or other content into your site. I have seen hackers run automated programs that try multiple usernames and passwords, until they find one that works. On rare occasions, the radical hackers will post derogatory or inflammatory content on your homepage (which has never happened on my watch, however I have been hired to help in situations like this) so it never seems to amaze me what people do to steal, cheat, or cause corruption online.<\/p>\n Let’s face it, technology is not going anywhere. What’s really crazy is how fast it’s progressing. When I got my first computer it was a Commodore 64, with 64K of RAM memory. It’s insane to think my smart watch now has over 5,000 times the computing power that my first computer had. Right now, cloud technology and online security are improving just as fast. Today’s cloud server technology is amazingly secure and the data-center is like Fort Knox. You can’t even access the building, it’s locked down, and only the employees that “need” to maintain the facility or servers have access to the data-center, where the physical servers are located. Additionally, cloud access control and authorization is better, faster, and stronger then even six months ago. We are leveraging Google Cloud Platform<\/a> and mobile application technology. YES, you heard right, GOOGLE! I know a lot of you think Google may be one of the bad guys when it comes to things of conservatism, privacy, or 2nd amendments rights, but let’s take a closer look at this perspective\/ issue or perhaps NON issue. First, Google has one of the most secure and scalable platforms in the world. I think we have all heard about Gmail. Most of us started using Gmail because it worked. It’s fast, secure, and available.\u00a0 I haven’t heard of many stories of Gmail being hacked or about users losing their data. Furthermore, there is continued efforts being made to constantly evolve cloud technologies and keeping up with the latest threat landscape. Although, we use several cloud data-centers, including all the top tier in the world, Google in my opinion is the safest bet with valuable and sensitive data being stored in the cloud. We have been using their corporate services for the past 15 years and I have to say I stand behind a company for the service it provides, and not the political views of a few of the employees.<\/p>\nShould you be worried?<\/h3>\n
My initial thoughts on technology, and using the cloud<\/h3>\n