How Safe is it Really, To Keep Your Financial Information in the Cloud?

It seems that everything is moving to “the Cloud” these days. Banking is in “the Cloud”. Our medical records are in “the Cloud”. Credit scores are in “the Cloud”. Our social lives are in “the Cloud”. Even our family photos are in “the Cloud”.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it worries me how much of our private information is available online. Identity theft is running rampant, and dealing with it when (not if) it happens to you is a nightmare!

So, how can we trust our financial information to companies that keep it all in “the Cloud”? Isn’t it safer to keep it in our private computers at home or in our offices?

Well, not really. While it would certainly seem that keeping all this vital data off the internet is the safe way to go, it’s actually more vulnerable that way. The reason is that your “private computer” isn’t really private. If you are connected to the internet, your computer can be hacked and your data can be stolen. Your computer can crash and when you take it in to be fixed, the tech can copy your drives. Your car can be broken into and your laptop can be taken, and there goes all your information. You can pick up a virus that’s more sophisticated than your antivirus program and the only way to fix the computer is to reformat everything and wipe all the data. Just like that, it’s all gone.

Keeping your files in the cloud means that you have access to it wherever there is internet access. A computer crash or stolen laptop doesn’t mean all your files are gone. They are still there, locked behind your password and all the security that Apple, Google, MicroSoft, Xero and Quickbooks Online have mustered to keep it all safe.Your files are still available to you, even if you have to go to the library to use a computer.

Don’t forget that it’s in the best interest of those companies who maintain cloud servers to keep their security at the highest standards, because their reputations and even their very existence is at stake. If they fail on this, the whole company can go down. Therefore, they have the best people they can find on the job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week working hard to head off each and every new threat and make sure that the data trusted to them stays safe under virtual lock and key.

Computing in “The Cloud” can save you lots of money, too. No longer is it a requirement to purchase software for every program you need to use. When your word processing, spreadsheet and accounting programs are entirely online, you don’t have to worry about endless updates that mess up your files and cause you to have to learn how to use the program all over again. There are no more messages telling you that the program will “no longer be supported” by the company that created it and sold it to you just a few years earlier.

It can also save you money on your devices. You won’t need as much memory on your computer because many cloud computing options offer free data storage up to a certain amount. If you need it, you can purchase more data for a surprisingly low monthly fee.

I know, I know. I was a hard sell on this, too. I don’t really like the idea of my all my information being “out there” for anyone to access. The truth is, though, that I’m not savvy enough to stay ahead of all the hackers out there who might be trying even right now to get into my computer. And honestly, I don’t have the time to try. I have a business to run, a family to care for and a life to live.

I think I’ll leave the internet security to the people who really know what they are doing and will be much more successful at keeping my data safe than I will.

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