The Mailman, a Charity and the Cloud

Yes, I pay my bills online, as any cloud advocate should. But a few months ago, I had logged off my laptop and forgot to post a donation to a local charity that I had promised to send out. So quickly a check went into an envelope and into my mailbox for my lovely mail-person to pick up.

And the fun began.

A week later, I received a call from a Detective from the Broward County (Fl) Fraud Division. Someone had tried to pass a check, with my banking information on it, along with a forged driver’s license, to buy computer equipment at a Best Buy. (There is some cosmic humor to this tale). The officer asked me a series of questions, one of them being “you never put a check in your mailbox, correct?” I quickly learned that thieves drive around neighborhoods 30 minutes before the mail-person and quietly remove only one envelope from any number of mailboxes. My thief made a perfect copy of my check to match his newly forged license and off he went. Ouch.

What got to me (other than the amazing number of hours required to change my accounts, auto payments etc) was the statement the Detective made about identity theft. He commented that although people are terrified of online theft, the overwhelming percentage of identify theft happens at the mailbox, at restaurants and anywhere you hand over your credit card to make a purchase.

Online methods accounted for only 11% of identity theft in 2009. Most identity theft happens offline. According to a 2009 study by Javelin Strategy and Research, stolen wallets and paperwork alone account for almost half (43%) of all identity theft.

Whenever I speak to small business owners about the benefits of using cloud services, the first objection I hear is their fear of lost data and security. It is comforting to know that your company’s data is in your possession tucked away safely in an office closet where no one but you and your IT people can gain access. We have all heard tales of government security breaches, banks and investment houses with lost passwords and let’s not forget WikiLeaks. But in truth, businesses don’t run exclusively from their servers and computers and haven’t for a long time.

It is easy for those of us who live in the world of technology to evangelize the cloud but in truth the cloud has been used for years in every business, whether in the form of email (Gmail, Yahoo, StreetSmart web hosted email) web chat or conferencing, accounting or bill paying, online banking, payroll services…….the list continues. We have come to rely on these cloud services without giving it much thought. We use email because irrespective of the risk, we are not going back to letter writing. Of course there can be breaches but most risk can be mitigated by safe practice and selecting vendors with proven track records. Leading cloud providers, such as InfoStreet, Sales Force, Amazon etc use the highest standards and protocols in online security and accessibility.

The current conversation about adopting the cloud as a private web based work environment is not really about beginning the process to migrate from desktop/server based programs to the cloud but to continue the path most companies, of all sizes, have already begun. The questions business needs to ask is not so much why, but how. How to take my business to the next level where it can compete on a level playing field wisely, safely and securely

And to remember that your staff may be already using the cloud without your knowledge.

“New research finds that while cloud computing services are being widely adopted, more than 50 percent of IT professionals surveyed say their organization isn’t aware of all the cloud services employees are using — and few were evaluated for security before use.” stated a recent article in Inc. Technology. “Too often, organizations simply aren’t keeping up with the cloud services their employees are using, according to recent research by the Ponemon Institute, an independent think tank focused on privacy and data security, and CA, Inc., an IT solutions provider. More than half of the IT personnel surveyed in the May study said their organization isn’t aware of all the cloud services employees have deployed, and less than half said that cloud services are evaluated for security before use.” This rings true for companies of all sizes especially for businesses with more than one location, employees who telecommute or are on the road meeting with or servicing clients.

“Although cloud computing might pose something of a “security minefield” right now, businesses have little choice but to catch up with the technologies their employees are embracing, says Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder of the Institute. . “We’re not going to stop the train. It’s going pretty fast here,” he says. “We know cloud computing is the future. If you’re not doing it, you’re going to be left behind. We have to figure out what to do with the risks we’ve already created.”

Yes, security and privacy are critical to every companies success.

Not necessarily in a mailbox however.