Cloud storage services have become increasingly popular over the past few years. They offer users an option to store important information externally, saving internal hard drive space. The critical question to ask is how secure these external storage services really are.
The New York Times articulates that there are many factors to determine cloud storage safety. Username, password, server connection, and the server’s own protection all play a part. One server, Dropbox, relies on an algorithm developed by the United States government designed for use with secure and classified data. Further, many rely on technology to protect the transfer of information from the user to the cloud storage servers.
Security is an especially large issue in terms of intellectual property. Clients’ ideas and concepts must be kept confidential, or risk losing patents or trade secrets. Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to protect those ideas and concepts. These storage services may create confidentiality issues if an attorney chooses to utilize them.
What exactly does this mean in terms of practice? Cloud storage services have potential hacking risks, just as any computer operating system. As a user, it is necessary to maintain strong passwords to keep items secure, and change those passwords often. In the end, it is a judgment call that the attorney must make. Utilizing cloud storage may be convenient, but it may also create problems if susceptible to hackers.