over my head????

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We're gonna just have to disagree, then. Any server that I don't have physical control over is a potential risk... because it's not my server.

Thank you for illustrating my point for me. I have no control over what the employees at Carbonite do with the servers housed at Carbonite.

For the record, I never said anything about "hacker attacks".

The point is, I don't allow any confidential or personal information to be stored in my Hotmail or Gmail accounts. Thus, my risk for exposure is small.

I understand you are a good-little-Microsoft-employee, fiercely loyal to your He Who Pays Your Salary, so you're simply regurgitating the company's line. I understand that. But I ain't buying into it just because Microsoft says "it's OK; trust us." And I like Microsoft. Consider how much harder is it going to be to convince Microsoft haters!

 

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i do have a shared drive that i use as a file server and i make back ups on that. I've just got the comodo software for backing up and we have a usb key for storing he information.
my main problem is that he leaves the key at work and won't take it home. I've tried to tell him that the point of the back up is so that you have a copy of the files and it's best to keep it in a different building to defend against fire. He just turned round and said, what if there's a fire at my house? to which i pointed out the obvious and said well then the computers here will still be fine!

Plus i'm the only one here that can understand how computers work and if i go then they won't know what do do and he won't get someone in just to do the IT stuff so i need to keep it simple so that any of the halfwits can do it

 

It's not his job to take the USB key home... if you're the IT guy, it's your job to take the USB key home. ;)

 

EDIT: meant to PM

 

Very true, but most companies have policies for this to prevent data loss/theft so I would make sure the boss is ok with this first

 

Excellent point - I agree wholeheartedly!

 

I do understand your point, your concern is that of highly confidentail and personal data. Everyone will have a different opinion on what decries their data to be of this status.

What I meant by my point above was that companies of certain sizes (obviously if you have a family business and you're the only one with access to the salary and income sheets of your company, then there's no safer place than to keep these info on your own computer, off the internet), unfortunately have IT teams which are spread to the point where the same level of control is very difficult to maintain.

I have worked at, and work for companies with large IT departments where often a dozen people may have access to the data center room, to the tape drives, to the harddisks, etc... I've even worked at a bank where "access" to some of the devices was difficult, but not entirely impossible.

And data has been stolen from companies such as this due to insider jobs.

What Microsoft's Cloud based offering has when it comes to security (and I do not know what other companies are capable of in this regards), is that it takes a very serious stance to keeping this data secure.

Is it 100% secure? No, I don't believe that. The servers hosting the data are connected to the internet, anything is possible, humans have to occasionally fix things by hand, etc... etc...

But short of keeping the server "immensely" secure (I've heard of first-person stories of how the root PC is 'secured' at companies that provide public keys on the internet), you can only achieve so much security, but even this security may still be higher than what many companies out there currently have.

We must not forget that small companies may provide all of their staff access to all devices in the office, maybe access to all of the data, whilst some of this data may for a very low fee and ease of administration, be secured via a permission model in the cloud (rather than investing in a more expensive, local server which someone can of course, just take and run away with), and many small offices most likely do not have physical security in place rivalling that of the major Cloud providers.

So this is why I did not fully agree with you, because you need to see this from multiple angles. Your angle is that you don't trust the people working FOR the company providing Cloud services. I don't think you have an actual problem trusting THE Cloud concept in itself. For that, all I can say is what I've seen in our marketing material; i.e. the level of security we have implemented, to safeguard the servers from physical access (as well as network based) is of very high standard.

Of course I cannot guarantee that the team maintaining the Cloud servers are 100% honest with a white rep sheet, but then again, not many employers can guarantee that this is true of THEIR employees either. In fact, the number of companies that hire staff and perform decent background checks, is a very small number.

So that's just my two cents... And nobody ever said that all data can or should be stored in the cloud. Laws and regulations as well as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and more dictate that some data must be stored by the company or government that owns and treats it, and as such, it doesn't matter how trusted Microsoft, Google or any other Cloud company is, it still would not end up being hosted by them.

But some companies can greatly benefit from an increase in security (as mentioned above, there certainly is an increase in security in several aspects of storing electronic data in the Cloud versus on-premise) and reduce costs when they choose a Cloud provider. After all, many on-premise installations are never fully utilized while the public message about Cloud computing dictates that it is a pay as you use service.

 

So what you're saying is that I should trust Microsoft's employees, whom I have almost no influence over, more than I trust my own employees, who I have quite a bit of influence over, even if the company is large?

Nah, I'll pass.

It's not that I don't trust specifically them. I don't trust anyone who I don't know, have no way of getting to know, and have little influence over. Doesn't matter what other angles there are. Some people will trust them without question; however, I think that's irresponsible for a tech who should always be concerned regarding security.

I don't understand the distinction. The lack of full administrative control is what causes me to trust THE Cloud concept in itself.

 

Unfortunately, with some companies, you have to, because there's no other option. For example, I admin the computer systems of two eye doctors whenever they need IT work done. They each have 6 or 7 computer systems. However, neither of them are going to spend thousands of dollars on a server and tape backup system when cheaper solutions would work just as well for them.

 

i would if he would let me but he's a bit of a paranoid soul and doesn't trust anyone with his parts and accounting info. He's a bit of a wierd one. he wants all this stuff but doesn't want to pay for it or give me all the information to do the job how he wants it done, he also does his own research into it because i don't think he believes what i tell him. He doesn't always read all the information either and you must know someone that knows a little but believes they know it all..........
not saying i do, i have lots to learn but i know considerably more than him.
anyway before i go off on one about my frustrating boss i'll shut up lol

 

BM: Your argument is sound and I respect that, nowhere did I say that a Cloud offering was a must, only a possibility for some. It's a case of who will you give your second pair of house keys. Your wife? Your kids? Your best friend? The Police?

Even if the Police are meant to be a "trusted" form of authority and personnel out there, you do not know them personally and thus may wish to give a second pair of keys to a good friend instead.

You trust your staff and that is very important. Most companies trust their staff. After all, you cannot really run anything if you don't, and most people can be entirely trustworthy.

I just don't think it limits you to working with just your staff and I could go on for pages more discussing the merits of trust, employment, who is allowed ot have access to your data, why are you confiding your cash with a third party (a bank) rather than storing it under your pillow and so on, but this is your opinion and I think it pretty much closes the discussion as I provided my POV and you gave yours.

Not much need to rant on about it as everyone is entitled to their opinion. Besides it drives the original discussion down an entirely different path...

 

Yep, I agree! We've both given our viewpoints and challenges to the other person's viewpoints. The important thing is that we understand where the other is coming from... and that's happened.

Good analogy on the keys, btw!

 

Sounds like there's not much room for you to grow and flourish at that company. At some point, you'll probably need to spread your wings and migrate to a company where you ARE entrusted with all the bits and bytes.

 

yeah, i'm looking for a new job at the moment but no one seems to want to take any notice unless you have experience in AD and i don't. I wouldn't even mind working for a repair shop while i learn my n+ and watch you tube vids on AD as then at least i'd have experience in constant repair and diagnostics and not just as and when. But even these are hard to come by. Feel in a bit of a rutt at the moment and need to break out. must keep on trying

 

You need to take a step sideways before you take a step up. Get an entry-level desktop support job at a slightly larger company - doesn't have to be a huge corporation, and in fact, it's probably better if it's not, because smaller companies will usually let you start helping out with higher-level tasks (such as server administration). Larger companies will tend to keep you busy with desktop support stuff 40 hours a week, every single week.

 

yeah i'm looking for entry level stuff. There's alot up the city but they all want this AD experience which i think is a bit off for what they are calling a juinor first line role suitable for a "newcomer" to IT a chance is all i want. i'm sure i'll find one.

 

If they're truly entry-level roles, go ahead and apply. Chances are, they're not gonna get a whole lot of people with heavy AD experience.

You can also mess around with AD in a home lab. Although it's not technically "experience" from an employer's perspective, at least you can say that you know how to perform light AD work, such as creating user accounts and resetting passwords...

 

heh, thanks. Just kinda popped in my mind

One could say something similar about the government... we entrust them with making passports for us, printing our money, handing out social security numbers (or whatever the equivalent may be in each country) and more. But if the X-Files is anything to go by, the government is the last one we should trust