Backup The Cloud

Hopefully you’ve read my article about backing up your workstation to the cloud and using a secondary backup to something like a USB drive, but what about backing up the cloud?  One of the benefits of using cloud computing is that you don’t have to backup, nor do you need purchase and maintain the software, and other components needed to backup.  If you are a little bit scared of say, having a client or co-worker nuke a document in Google Docs, Spanning Backup may be your solution.  It’s a cloud backup service (think of it as insurance) that backs up your cloud documents.  Crazy, I know, but if it’s something you worry about, there’s a cloud solution.  

- Chris Claborne

Using Google's Two-Factor Authentication

UPDATE:  If you've read about Gmail account passwords getting stolen (hackers getting users to load a fake page and stealing password) and you are concerned, you really should read this.  Had those users turned on Google’s “Two-Step Verification” they probably wouldn't have been hacked.

Google introduced what's known in the industry as "two-factor authentication” last year.  Google calls it "2-step verification".  Although I use a two-factor authentication system every day for the company I work for and have used others in the past, it’s time to tighten my security belt. In addition, I feel that if I’m going to write about Google’s system, I really should be using it.  Actually I think you should too.  Security is in the news a lot more these days and people are putting more of their lives into the cloud.  If you use Google Docs and other services like I do, you should be doing a better job of ensuring your stuff is secure and private.  

After the break, I’ll explain what it is, how it works, and how to turn it on for your Google account.