Conventional means of storage are cheap and the familiarity with them makes them very hard to transition from. However, the consequences of relying too much on traditional technology are astronomically devastating. There’s very good reason why the global market has transitioned from conventional storage solutions to enterprise cloud storage solutions.

Among the decade old tech that we still have in our corporate environments and domestic use is the USB stick. USB sticks are classified in a storage category referred to as Tape storages, this classification also includes Internal or External Hard drives.

These storage solutions are easy to use and almost irreplaceable in our work environments; however, a recent event unveiled how dangerous reliance on these storage solutions can be.

Sensitive Data Leakage due to Conventional Storage

On October 28^th, 2017 Heathrow airport launched a “very, very urgent” investigation. This was in response to a USB stick that was found with 2.5 GB of sensitive data that contained information that could have aided in espionage and terrorist activities. This data contained details about the Queen, her travel routes and similar details. It also contained information on several dignitaries as well. In terms of national security, in the wrong hands this could have proven devastating. Thankfully, the USB stick was found by a member of the public and it was handed over to the Sunday Mirror instead.

While the reason behind why such crucial information was found in a USB on a street remains under investigation and the probable cause remains under speculation; one thing can be said for certain that this could have been avoided.

Instead of moving data via USB, which imposes such dangers if lost, the data could have been moved using cloud storage. This points to the outdated systems that are being used for data migration, even by enterprises that are responsible for such sensitive data.

The enterprise could have employed backup appliances with cloud connect services to store data locally and then move it to the cloud. This data could have then been accessed with the right credentials from another location. This way, data leakage could have been easily avoided. This hybrid solution is capable of providing multi-layered security that would secure the data on various levels.

Conclusion

Conventional storage solutions have become an irreplaceable part of our lives. However, relying on them can be costly and sometimes dangerous. That is why it is necessary to migrate from conventional means of storage to cloud backup and storage. With the cloud, there are several layers of security as data is shared and used. This is the reason why governments and security agencies are deploying their mission critical data on the cloud.