140
New Report: Over 40% of Google Drive Files Contain Sensitive Info
(www.infosecurity-magazine.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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How was that not expected? Give people somewhere to stick files that they don’t want to lose because of a hard drive crash or computer malfunction. Files that they absolutely want backed up somewhere not locally. Files that they may want to get access to while not at home… All those are going to be things like taxes, receipts, medical forms and data, scans of important documents, etc. like, that’s the point.
The first step towards societal change is to admit we have a problem. Studies like this are a necessary first step.
no encryption
google scans data
literally global honey pot
Don't trust other person's computer for your sensitive shit
If I want my files highly available and open for collaboration, I’d trust Google’s security over rolling my own.
Google's non security you mean, since they can see all your files, and scan them, even zip files.
That's not secure.
I would say don't trust free services in general. There are plenty of paid service providers that handle your data well.
TbF I pay for Google drive (but still don't trust them)
Right, Google isn't one to trust. So paid services and clear data handling practices.
Paid services doesn't equal security though. I think box.com has pretty good security and is free. Microsoft paid onedrive is a little sketchy to me. Not a drive service, but 23andme is a good recent example of non ad based services not necessarily being more secure.
This article just reads as an ad for the scanning company.
Also, while it's possibly true, it's based off seriously small sample sizes.
And sampling bias.
Plus they pick and choose numbers for a more drastic headline. "Sensitive" data is a very broad category, I don't know what criteria they used but that could be as little as someone's name being mentioned with a "todo" note. The quarter of a percent mentioned as having a "critical" issue I venture is closer to what most people think of when they read the title. Infosec consultants have a bad habit of inflating numbers until actual risks are lost in the noise.
How were they able to analyze 6.5 million files if 0.5% were publicly available? How did they get access to the 99.5% other files?
The numbers are listed poorly and not put in the correct context, me thinks.
6.5 million documents is nothing compared to the user base of 3 billion, so that is something to keep in mind. Each number given is not clearly compared against the total user base, the total number of public documents or any other condition they listed.
Hell, I can't even tell if my guess is even accurate. It's really bad writing and I am not going to download the original report to find out more.
After I read some info on their website, I suspect the company sells security software to companies to investigate their own google drive usage. I guess they are reporting accumulated meta information their customers shared.
I dug a little deeper as well and I agree. The author of the link that was posted here is just summarizing "papers" released by various security companies. It's not quality content, but it's a living for him I suppose. Meh.
What is the security problem with Google Drive, bad user settings?