Security Considerations for Synced Devices

When dealing with data to be updated across different types of devices, there are cross-platform threats to be guarded against, such via the use of an encrypted file system that can be enabled to protect data on lost or stolen devices. To provide additional protection for sensitive data, you can encrypt local files using the security library. Otherwise attackers can typically use your login information to access sensitive data stored in the cloud.

Hackers use various methods to access our personal data without any official permission. In addition to stealing passwords, hackers can also use script errors to gain access to unauthorised data. There are many security issues that can lead to cybercrime, like the fact that you might have the best antivirus for PC usage, while a different protocol is opened up during data transfer and syncing with other devices, like your mobile phon. While addressing the security risks associated with this may seem like a daunting task, not addressing them can put your contacts’ and your data at risk.

As the need to sync and store data on mobile devices continues to grow, addressing the security risks associated with this is critical. People are becoming more and more aware of mobile device privacy issues, especially when the device is performing online transactions, so it is very important that your application applies all the best practices to keep user data safe at all times. Security and privacy are the two main concerns for users when transferring sensitive data. There’s no doubt that file sync can improve business and staff productivity, but it’s important to understand the risks and potential trade-offs to data security.

Of even greater concern is how often your files are synced across devices, as you often work with sensitive data or data that you cannot afford to lose. Because corporate files are synced across multiple devices, those files are governed by that user’s or employee’s personal security habits, whether the employee is working on their own device or on a company-provided device. Any employee can download company data to their device using their individual password. These personal logins sync data to the cloud for all devices associated with that account, unless your employees or IT admins have configured services to prevent this.

If you wish to use the Google Cloud to store and sync your Chrome data without allowing any individual and aggregated usage by Google as described in the previous paragraphs, you can encrypt all your synced data with a sync passphrase. Solutions which incorporate solid mobile security for Android should offer the ability to securely and privately synchronise data by replicating data directly between trusted devices and keeping the transferred data encrypted. People who simply don’t like the idea of ​​sharing their information with browser vendors, even if their information is encrypted, can use specialised software that promises to sync browser data in a more secure way. Encrypting data (assuming the encryption key is not stored on the device) or changing the password on the cloud device if lost are two approaches that will protect you from a security breach.

Consumer-grade file sync systems (such as Dropbox) are typically designed to give people access to their personal files across multiple devices and are not designed to enable employees to properly share and secure corporate information (let alone ensure that same type of audit control).