Steve Wozniak, co-founder, Apple has stated major reservations about cloud computing at a performance of Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” this weekend in Washington D.C.
Wozniak expressed his concerns about the store of personal data going into the cloud that could be easily accessible to hackers. Now chief scientist of Fusion.io, Wozniak argued that the users must sign over their rights to access the service and further said that users don’t own anything with the cloud. They sign it away during the legalistic terms of service with a cloud provider that users must agree to. He further went on to say that the more users transfer data onto the web, onto the cloud, the less control they will have over it.
He said that he fears hoards of problems in the next five years and is concerned that the end-users would lose control over the software and files that are stored in the cloud.
Let’s take the instance of Mat Honan, who is the former staff writer of Gizmodo. There were hackers who accessed Honan’s iCloud account using the clearly non-techie but highly effective technique of social engineering. The unknown culprit then tricked an Apple support staffer by disguising as Honan. As a result, Honan lost access to his iPhone, Macbook, and all his devices that turned out to be a nightmare for him.
As written by Honan in a blog- “In short, someone gained entry to my iCloud account, used it to remote wipe all of my devices, and get entry into other accounts too.”
Losing access to personal stuff and devices is something that keeps all cloud skeptics, including Wozniak up at night.
