Is OneDrive Part of "the cloud"?

"The Cloud" can be really confusing. That is because it is invisible. I wrote aboutit in an earlier post called "What is Cloud Computing?" 

When I think of a cloud, I think of a fluffy white thing floating peacefully through the sky.  

That is NOT what the Cloud is that you hear about these days.When someone talks about "The Cloud" in the context of technology they are talking about HUGE warehouses of computers called servers that are storing HUGE amounts of your data and serving it or sending it out when requested. They look more like this picture.

Companies have "Clouds". If you use Kindle, you are storing your books on the Amazon Cloud. If you have Gmail your email goes through the Google Cloud. Apple has a cloud that they call iCloud. Microsoft calls their cloud OneDrive. Dropbox is a Cloud. Social Media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter have Clouds. 

The Cloud or Clouds have made it possible for us to access information from anywhere that there is wifi. We can sync all of our devices so that they have the same information. We can share files and photos with people in other locations easily without having to attach them to email. Clouds are maintained and backed up regularly - hopefully in different locations, to ensure the integrity of information. 

A word of caution though.  The Cloud is not just one thing or an innocent peaceful thing. Clouds are many different collections of data managed by companies. It is possible that a company may go out of business. What will happen to your data? What if the company that is storing your data uses it in ways you do not approve of? What if there is a security breach somehow and your files are accessed? The recent story of celebrity pictures is an example of that. (Click on the link if you don't remember it! I chose CNN because it does not actually have the photos. It just talks about them.)

That is why strong passwords and not posting anything that you don't want to share with the world are really important.

The image below shows what the Cloud is and may make it clearer than what I have said. 

Should I use 2 Step-Authentication?

WHAT IS 2 STEP AUTHENTICATION?

Authentication means making sure you are who you say that you are. Using a password is the main way that you are authenticated by most websites. But what if someone finds out your password. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter (and other large companies) have designed a way that you can have two layers of security for your accounts with them. First you have to put in your password. Second a random code is texted to your cell phone. When you get the message you type the code into the website and you are in. If someone has your password it is most likely that they do not have your cell phone also. 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS SHOULD YOU USE IT?

The more secure you want to be online the more important it is to use the two-factor authentication. You can set this so that it does not happen on your own computer, but only when you are using a public computer or one that belongs to someone else. 

In Facebook click on the gear in the top right to get the settings.  Then choose Security. Look down the list on the left until you see Log in Approvals. This is where you set up your phone to be an extra layer of security.

In Google after you log in find your picture, or the default picture in the top right corner. When you click on it a window will pull down and you should click on the word Privacy. This will open a webpage that will give you lots of information about how to be more secure. If you want to set up 2-step authentication slide down the page and click to "find out more about 2-step authentication. 

Follow similar steps to set this up in Yahoo, Twitter and other programs. The choice will be found in your settings under security or privacy. 

The more secure your computer is the more difficult it is for anyone, including you, to use it. I like the advice of Socrates "Know Thyself". How old are you?  How good is your memory? What do you use your computer for? How often do you use computers other than your own? Do you have a cell phone and do you use Text Messaging? 

For someone who uses a computer all of the time for business purposes or for regular banking it is a good idea to be as secure as possible even if it is frustrating sometimes. For someone who mostly plays solitaire and sometimes gets online to do email it may not be worth the effort. Then there are all of the many cases that fall inbetween. So, know yourself, is the best advice that I have. 

SOMETHING EXTRA

Since we are talking about security I thought I would also mention the Captcha Codes. Wikipedia says it stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. 

You often have to fill them out at the bottom of a form or application that you are submitting. They are getting more and more difficult to interpret. They were devised to make sure that it was a real person who is filling out the form. Today there are robot computers that can fill in forms and send notes, but they cannot read pictures of letters and numbers. 

If you cannot read the code on the page that you are on there is a speaker you can click on to hear the audio of the captcha. You can also press the circle arrows (or reload) to get a new code. There are several really tricky letters and numbers to read (L, l, I, and 1 for example), so never feel like you are stupid. You are SO much smarter than any computer.

HELP, I've lost my Facebook Password!!

I just got a note from my friend, Ruthie who has lost her Facebook password for some reason. She asked me to help her figure out how to get it.

She had already done the first step that a person should do when they forget a password. On the login page she clicked "forgot your password?" and entered her email address. Shortly after that she received email with a link to set a new password to get into her account. The problem is that when this happened it connected her to an OLD account that she had created by accident. This account was empty, while the other one had 209 friends, photos and lots of messages.

I was not sure how to help her, so I did what I always do and went to the HELP section of the program. I learned lots of things that might be helpful someday:

1. All accounts are connected to an email address. In your Account settings you can put in a back up email address which will allow Facebook to contact you even if your first email address is gone. Having a second email address here is important. I am adding one right now. Even if you have to create a free gmail, hotmail, or yahoo account in order to have a second add a second one do it!

2. Some times accounts are Disabled. There is a whole section on disabled accounts that might be helpful to look at.

3. In extreme cases Facebook has a way that you can Restore your Account through Friends. This still involves communicating with Facebook through a recognized email address. If you can not solve your problem any other way you may want to look at this section. I had a hard time finding it and learned that which words you use is really important. I kept looking for "restore" and could not find it, but when I used "recover" it worked.

4. You can get to the Facebook HELP CENTER even if you are not logged in by going to the bottom of the login page and looking for the small word "help" on the bottom right side.

5. You are not supposed to be able to make more than one account with the same email address. With my email address I made a business page, but it is tied to my Facebook page and acts a little differently. You can also create GROUPS with Facebook to have a password protected space that only certain people can access.

Remembering Passwords

Everything, well, almost everything requires a password now. How can you remember all of them?

Passwords are really important. Now that so much is stored on servers or "the cloud", companies that create web applications password protect them so that you can have your own privacy settings.

Here is some advice about passwords:

• Safe passwords have eight or more letters with one or more symbol or number.

• Safe passwords should be difficult to guess. You should never use your birthday, the birthdays of your kids, the names of your pets, your street name, etc.

• To keep your passwords safe you should change them regularly. This is especially important for any site where you use your credit card or do banking.

So, if you make your passwords difficult to remember and change them regularly how can you ever remember all of them? On the LastPass website it says that, "Collectively we lose more than 10,300 hours per year retrieving lost passwords, making new ones or talking to call center representatives about them." I know that I have contributed time to that total, not to mention the frustration of those situations.

TWO LEVELS OF PASSWORDS

Think of your passwords as walls that keep people out of your information. The first level of password must be extremely secure because it involves a credit card or bank account. Make sure these are unique and that change them often. The second level of passwords are less important. These are for sites that do not contain personal or financial information. It is less important to change these passwords on a regular basis. Using a series of words and changing them in a rotation can work for some sites. Some people keep a list of all of their passwords on paper slips somewhere that they can find them. This is better than not using good passwords, but it does leave a person open to the possibility of someone finding your passwords.

KeePass Website

One solution that some people are using is software that can remember passwords for you. There are many apps for the iPhone that have one password to lock up all of your passwords. The one problem with this is that you can forget the ONE password for the locker and not be able to access all of your passwords. In this case you will need to delete that account and start all over again with a new account and a new password.

LastPass Website

One other program that I am going to try is called LastPass. The nice thing so far about this program is that it works AS I use the computer. I do not have to enter all of my information. Once it is downloaded and I have an account every time I go to a site where I need to log in the Last Pass learns my login and username. After that when I go to the same site it will suggest the username and password that it has remembered. If that is correct I can just log in with one click.

I am only able to use this one for free with my one computer. If I want it to sync to my iPhone, iPad or other computers I will have to pay $1 a month to get that option. I am going to try a different one on my iPhone to see how it works. It is called Easy Passwords lite. It is free with options for more features if I choose to pay.

I am not an expert on this, so if you are reading this and have suggestions PLEASE put them into the comments. I want to learn and also to give correct information to readers.