Vocal Voices

I know it is wrong, and I know it is illegal, and I do have sympathy for her. I certainly would not want my private papers or pictures out in the open.

However, I do think it is a good thing that news of the hack has come out. It might be for the public good.

So many efforts have been made down to year to try to get people to keep their private stuff, well, private; and they all fail after time. This new high profile hack might get some of us to think again.

People really do have to get it into their heads that if there is a way out there is a way in. Nothing connected to the internet is safe; ask NASA, the banks and so on, and they have top notch security.

We individuals, by comparison, are virtually naked. Our smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops and cloud depositories are all vulnerable - some more so than others. If we really do want to keep our digital lives safe then we should keep them offline and off all our gadgets.

Put all your stuff on a password protected pen drive, wrap it in clingfilm, wrap it in tin foil, wrap it in bubble wrap, more tin foil, bung it in a lead box then lock it in a safe. Only bring it out when you need it. OK, just keep it on a pen drive and plug in when you need to update.

I bet Pippa and her security people will be thinking along those lines for the future.

Even better, write it to 3 different DVD's and store them in different places, one in a fire safe. When DVD writers vanish, do the effort to move it to BD and then whatever mechanism is left.

As a DVD is optical it's absolutely impossible to steal without the physical disk as it's impossible to read "at a distance" when it's in a safe or even on a shelf.

My personal preference is multiple hard drives which are protected by industry strength firewalls and personal practises which don't put me at risk. Not everyone can do that.

Right now I'm nervous because my two servers, my back up NAS and my local storage on my workstation are all in the same room. One fire and I'll lose the lot. This week I'll investigate moving them somewhere safer.

Pretty much every iCloud hack has been successful due to the user falling for some scam or other. The back end has been secure but the access has been granted by the user.

However not having it in a place which can be compromised when you make a stupid mistake is the best way. Hence DVD, pen drive or offline storage you connect every now and then.

My last but one para was very TIC. What I was getting at, Suff, and which you have also said, is that people are fooled into believing their stuf is super safe online. These cloud depositories clam that they are safe, they sell the service on that, and they are telling the truth - their back-ends will be safe. What they cannot guarantee is that their users play the game properly.

Do not get me started on passwords!