Spamhaus facing unprecedented cyber-attack
There is the very real prospect of a doomsday scenario for many internet users following the alleged row between Spamhaus and a hosting firm in which retaliation attacks affecting the internet have slowed down service for users. This is according to Simon Bain, CTO of search specialists, Simplexo.

Simon states: “I am not a great lover of multi-device synchronisation, I mean all those versions kicking around your systems! However if done well, it could be one of the technologies that help save ‘Cloud Stores’ from the idiosyncrasies of the Internet and a connected life.”

“It’s been widely reported that we are currently witnessing a massive cyber attack happening against one of the Internets spam filters – Spamhaus - which also happens to manage some of the DNS traffic. This attack seems to be happening because Spamhaus blacklisted another organisation’s domains accusing them of spam and web attacks. They allegedly took offense and again allegedly started the attack. Reports have also stated that there are currently five national cyber-police-forces investigating the attack.”

“If you are one of the millions of people who rely on a cloud based storage service, and your files are not synchronised in real-time, then this type of attack could stop you accessing your files, your emails and at its worst your entire corporate day. This doomsday scenario may well sound far fetched, however it could I am afraid be all too real. It only takes a small set of disgruntled people to start an attack and then have that spiral out of control. Taking with it access to your on-line work.

"This however, should not stop people using these services. But it should make them shop around, and look at what is really on offer. A service that does not have synchronisation may well sound great. But if you do not have a local copy of your document on the device that you are actually working on, and your connection goes down, for whatever reason, then your work will stop,” he added.

Simplexo has recently launched SearchYourCloud, a new application which enables people to securely find and access information stored in Dropbox, Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint or Outlook.com with a single search. Using either a Windows PC or any IOS device, SearchYourCloud will also be available for Google Drive, EverNote, Sky Drive and other clouds later in the year.

SearchYourCloud enables users to not only find what they are searching for, but also protects their data and privacy in the cloud.