I'm not trying to say it will go poof and be in someone else's hands, just that there IS a chance. Even when you protect/encrypt/hide files it's not terribly difficult to get around it for someone knowledgeable. Is it likely to happen? Nope, but if I know you have a list on your computer that I want, I'll get it.
Granted...except that is true for hard copy documents as well, even more so in my opinion.
Electronic copies have added advantages that hard copies do not...which really offset any perceived disadvantages.
For instance, if you think that it's easy to decrypt files that
properly use good and time-tested commercially available encryption software, then you've got another think coming.
And anybody who thinks security ends there is sadly mistaken...this is another area of vulnerability. Multiple layers of security make access to important files incrementally more difficult because each level of security provides an added level of protection against methods that others are vulnerable to.
For example, secure networks don't just rely on firewalls and electronic security access programs. They're also set up to be independent of other networks, and the stations which access them are also in controlled areas. You cannot hack through a firewall by an independent computer if that computer has no physical access to the network.
The same philosophy applies to electronic files. If all you take is the bare minimum, then you're setting yourself up for a single-point failure. Just like hand writing a list and then not securing it physically, for example.
I have an older laptop, for example, that I could set up as a stand-alone computer and never connect it to a network. If I really wanted to be secure, I could set it up to boot up and run on an operating system installed on a flash drive. I could create and save any files I want and save them as heavily encrypted files on flash drives or micro-SD cards, which I can then remove and physically secure elsewhere. I can shred existing files/erase hard drive space using a shredding program rated to DOD standards. If I was really concerned, I could also physically destroy the laptop hard drive by a variety of means.
In the end I would have any data I wanted secured in encrypted flash drives or micro-SD cards which are so small that physically securing them presents any number of possibilities that could frustrate even the most dedicated search for them.
This is why I roll my eyes at a lot of people who don tin hats about how electronic files are "so easy to hack". They're ONLY easy to hack IF they can be found, IF they can be accessed, and IF they can be decrypted.
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