Lets say for instance your house burns down, how are you supposed to recover data from the burnt remains of your PC and Backup server or Backup drives?
as part of a backup strategy offsite storage is basically required. You need a minimum of 3 copies, 1 local, 1 on a separate system, and 1 off site. Most people cant really afford the infrastructure required to legitimately make off site storage solutions. Cloud providers offer the hardware and redundancy required, you just need to take realistic precautions and encrypt your data yourself prior to transit.
Im not sure what youre asking in regards to āreal needā as that question makes no sense.
as for using a USB drive as a ābackupā, thats a very good way to end up with data loss/theft (assuming unencrypted) which a foreign government agency recently found out the hard way. If you encrypt the data yourself you are the only one with access to it so there isnt a reason to care about what your cloud provider does as they cant do anything with it anyway.
Cloud storage isnt inherently bad, its a great tool for people who require or want the redundancy millions of dollars of investment can provide. Trying to maintain your data locally with high up time and minimal data loss is borderline impossible as the average joe/jane.
Being so paranoid that you wont even use cloud storage even after encrypting your data youself is beyond tinfoil hat. Its a tool, and if you use it in a way that makes sense and keeps your data secure on your own terms then what is the issue?
Encrypt, upload if you really need to.
If you donāt need to, or you find the idea āreally, really sillyā then donāt.
There is no objective truth to the whole thing.
Do or donāt as you please.
Also, keeping an offsite USB drive up-to-date is somewhat difficult. I still keep an offline offsite copy of critical data but it always seems to fall behind as I donāt keep up with it when I get busy. My cloud backups go every night.
if data encryption was so easily broken then it would be entirely pointless, I think the issue here stems from your lack of understanding the topic. Im no expert, but i encourage you to seek information on it.
Youre essentially saying you have a bias, there has been good points contrary to your bias but youve simply ignored that or misunderstood it. Weāre all guilty of bias at some point, but its best to try and avoid such staunch bias and refusing to see any value in the opposing idea.
I think you should look into cloud storage, backup strategies, and encryption to better round out some understanding of it. The first statement i quoted in this reply alone tells me you have a very limited understanding of the topic at hand and your bias isnt an informed one.
I dont mean this in any way as an insult, just encouraging you to maybe broaden your horizon just a tad.
But this does not work if you use MEGA for example as the cloud storage for your mobile device. I started to upload my iphone pictures to MEGA. There is no way to encrypt before send.
This quote is more meaningful if it also includes the first sentence and last sentence of that paragraph. The original blog from MEGA reads:
The whitepaper published today represents the gold standard in cryptographic research, and we are extremely grateful for the privilege of having been chosen as a target. Seeing how seemingly innocuous cryptographic design shortcuts taken almost a decade ago backfire under scrutiny by three of the sectorās brightest minds is both frightening and intellectually fascinating. The very high threshold of exploitability, despite the broad range of identified cryptographic flaws, provides a certain sense of relief.
Full statement can be found here:
What remains at the end of the day?
They have reacted fast. The issue is fixed.
Other cloud providers could face similar issues. This remains to be seen.