You probably know the statistic that gets pulled out whenever there is a horrific airplane crash with no survivors: Flying in an airplane is much, much safer than driving a car. So why are some of us still so afraid of getting on a plane? Is it for the same reason some of us are still afraid of cloud accounting? We feel like we have no control – no control over the airplane, and no control over the security and safety of our data.
When we have our good old desktop accounting software solidly installed on our own computer, and we log in through that familiar, though annoyingly slow process that feels like a hand-eye coordination test (Hand on the mouse! Where will the next popup be? Get ready to click the close button!) we feel safer. We know where the program lives, we know where the data lives, we update the software regularly (right??), we back up religiously (right??), we have a solid firewall on our network (right??), we totally trust our virus software (right??).
I recently attended a so-called Fireside Chat (so-called, because there was no fire) sponsored by Xero, one of the cloud based accounting software programs I regularly set up for clients. (QuickBooks Online is the other big player.) One of the panelists was the IT guy from a huge (billions in assets) financial services firm that serves a very wealthy clientele. He spoke about security (pretty important when your clients’ net worth is more than the GDP of many small countries). His advice? Get over it. The big cloud companies (think AWS, Google, Microsoft, RackSpace) have more resources, expertise, and skin in the game than any of us. They take security very, very seriously for obvious reasons. Think about it: is your data safer on a server run by one of these companies, or is it safer on your not-quite-state-of-the-art-desktop PC or Mac, connected to a network set up by your local IT guy whom you only call when the whole thing crashes. And if loss of data is what you fear, then a hard drive crash is your worst nightmare.
This panelist did suggest that when we are doing business in the cloud – accounting, banking, bill paying – we should set up Multi Factor Authentication whenever it is offered. Basically, MFA is the kind of log-in security where you have to provide not only your user name and password, but you also have to answer a secret question, or enter a code sent by text to your phone, or maybe use an electronic token to generate a random number which you then enter when you are logging in. MFA simply gives a greater level of security to your account and greatly reduces the chances of someone capturing your login information through whatever phishing or malware or other nefarious hacking techniques they may be using.
Using MFA and basic common sense (don’t log in to confidential information while on a public network) will keep you and your data safe from the bad guys. So fasten your seat belt, return your seat to its upright position, and let’s fly!