Meanwhile, cloud storage often requires a monthly subscription. That may make hard drives seem like the more attractive option, since you can get terabytes of storage for well under $100. While external hard drives may appear cheaper, a cloud storage subscription insulates you from any unexpected costs (Image credit: Unsplash)įor many people, the goal is simply to get the cheapest backup solution. Cloud storage vs external: Sync technology When that happens, it can be expensive or impossible to recover your data. More than one-quarter of all modern hard disk drives fail before the end of their warranty period. However, if you broaden security to include reliability, hard disks start to look a lot less attractive. Hackers can’t access your hard disk unless it’s connected to your computer. To be fair, data security on an external hard disk drive is pretty strong. This in turn means that even if a hacker got their hands on your data, they wouldn’t be able to unlock it.

Some services go even further by offering zero-knowledge encryption-meaning that only you know your encryption key. Many secure cloud systems now use virtually uncrackable 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption to protect your data before it even leaves your devices. But, cloud storage security has come a long way in a short time. Security used to be a major flaw with cloud storage, with some cloud providers losing users’ data to hacks. While external hard drives are still highly secure, cloud storage providers utilize encryption for maximum file safety (Image credit: Unsplash)

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