Windows 7: Data in the Cloud cannot be guaranteed to be secure

Normally, I wouldn't support the arrests of the MegaUpload owners. After seeing how much money laundering they did, and how they lied to the government and movie associations about taking down illegal links (they would only take down one, not all) though, I'm glad the owners got arrested.

Also a reason as to why I wouldn't trust my important documents to cloud servers, mainly because most people would use them for illegal things. I have my hard drives (and email I guess...) to keep my files.

This might be of interist.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It probably would have been more difficult, but one or more servers were located in Virginia, U.S.A.

Most were located in Hong Kong. But since at least one was in the U.S. it is easier for the FBI, DOJ, etc to get it.

Hi there
This isn't quite correct

-- Seizure of a Server isn't actually dependant on the COST or even the QUALITY of the service.

If the Govt (of whatever country) decides that "Due to issues of xxxxx" -- usually National Security --- we are going to SEIZE the server then there isn't much you can do other than wait (or initiate) some Court action which could take AGES to resolve even if there is NOTHING on the server that actually is breaking either the law (in that country) or contravening National Security.

I'm against also where ONE country decides to arrest / extradite citizens of another country where NO LAW HAS BEEN BROKEN in the country where extradition has been sought.

A typical example is the ongoing case of the British guy wanted by the USA even though he had done NOTHING currently against UK Law.

Other countries that have often done this type of stuff are Israel (Mossad particularly in removing people they don't like -- even if one feels Israel *might* have a case International Law should be followed) and Russia.

(Countries should recognize the fact that laws ARE different in different places and whether or not these countries like other people's law they HAVE to learn to live with it}.

I'm always amazed that when INNOCENT people are arrested by the FBI in the USA they are carried off "In Handcuffs" before any proof of innocence or guilt has been proved. If Innocent how often do the FBI ever pay up for "Wrongful arrest" or " Stress" -- the USA as a "Democracy" exempts a lot of FBI action from being sued in civil courts.

I'm not against LEGITIMATE seizure of data but the "Get out of Jail Mantra" for a lot of governments seems to be that old hardy perennial "National Security".

Cheers
jimbo

Here are some ZDNet links.
Why small businesses should care about the Megaupload debacle | ZDNet

"No imminent data loss" expected, Megaupload host says | ZDNet

If their is a question all one has to remember is any thing in a cloud you do have not control of security.

Not to mention reliability.

Microsoft's Azure cloud down and out for 8 hours ? The Register
Microsoft Azure outage takes down govt CloudStore

The various **AAs aren't the only ones who want to be able to rain on your parade either.
http://www.information-age.com/chann...eadiness.thtml

No kidding. Anyone who says, "they couldn't understand how such an important system could go down" and "this should never happen", after something like this does happen, was obviously duped into a false sense of security and does not need to be in charge of something that big in the first place. The Titanic would never sink, space shuttles would never blow up, blabbedy blah, blah.

Idiots.

More than makes me a little hesitant of using either Google Apps or Office 365 - not that either company will go tits up in the near future - but "cloud" computing is so vast... you never know what could happen.

Aye and your local hard drive is any more reliable. Silly people.

As for Windows Azure going down...it didn't only the management dashboard because of certificate issues. Leap years got its claws in the certificate causing issues for connecting. But no data was lost. * Azure wasn't the only to have certificate issues on the 29th.