File hosting service

A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker
is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allows users to upload
files that can be accessed over the internet after providing a username and password or other authentication.
Typically, file hosting services allow HTTP access, and in some cases, FTP access. Other related services
include content-displaying hosting services (i.e. video and image), virtual storage, and remote backup
solutions.

Uses

Personal file storage

Personal file storage services are designed for private individuals to store and access their files online. Users
can upload their files and share them publicly or keep them password-protected.[1]

Document-sharing services allow users to share and collaborate on document files. These services
originally targeted files such as PDFs, word processor documents, and spreadsheets.[2] However many
remote file storage services are now aimed at allowing users to share and synchronize all types of files
across all the devices they use.

File sync and sharing services

File syncing and sharing services allow users to create special folders on each of their computers or mobile
devices, which are then synchronized across all devices. Files placed in this folder can be accessed through
a website or mobile app and easily shared with others for viewing or collaboration. [3]

Consumer products such as OneDrive and Google Drive have made file hosting and sharing more
accessible and popular for personal and business use.[4]

Content caching

Content providers who encounter bandwidth congestion issues may use specialized services for distributing
cached or static content. This is especially common for companies with a major internet presence.[5]

Backup and disaster recovery

Many businesses use file hosting services as part of their backup and disaster recovery strategies. By storing
copies of important files offsite in a secure data center, they can quickly recover from data loss due to
hardware failure, natural disasters, or other unexpected events.[6]

Storage charges
Some online file storage services offer space on a per-gigabyte basis, and sometimes include a bandwidth
cost component as well. Usually these will be charged monthly or yearly. Some companies offer the service
for free, relying on advertising revenue. Some hosting services do not place any limit on how much space
the user's account can consume. Non-paying users' accounts may be deleted or suspended after a
predefined period of inactivity.[7]

Some services require a software download which makes files only available on computers which have that
software installed, others allow users to retrieve files through any web browser. With the increased inbox
space offered by webmail services, many users have started using their webmail service as an online drive.
Some sites offer free unlimited file storage but have a limit on the file size. Some sites offer additional
online storage capacity in exchange for new customer referrals.

One-click hosting
One-click hosting, sometimes referred to as cyberlocker,[8] generally describes web services that allow
internet users to easily upload one or more files from their hard drives (or from a remote location) onto the
one-click host's server free of charge.

Most such services simply return a URL which can be given to other people, who can then fetch the file
later. In many cases these URLs are predictable allowing potential misuse of the service.[9] As of 2005
these sites have drastically increased in popularity, and subsequently, many of the smaller, less efficient sites
have failed. Although one-click hosting can be used for many purposes, this type of file sharing has, to a
degree, come to compete with P2P filesharing services.[10]

The sites make money through advertising or charging for premium services such as increased
downloading capacity, removing any wait restrictions the site may have or prolonging how long uploaded
files remain on the site. Premium services include facilities like unlimited downloading, no waiting,
maximum download speed etc. Many such sites implement a CAPTCHA to prevent automated
downloading. Several programs aid in downloading files from these one-click hosts; examples are
JDownloader, FreeRapid, Mipony, Tucan Manager and CryptLoad.

Use for copyright infringement

For example, in the case of Swiss–German file hosting service RapidShare, in 2010 the US government's
congressional international anti-piracy caucus declared the site a "notorious illegal site", claiming that the
site was "overwhelmingly used for the global exchange of illegal movies, music and other copyrighted
works".[11] But in the legal case Atari Europe S.A.S.U. v. Rapidshare AG in Germany,[12] the Düsseldorf
higher regional court examined claims related to alleged infringing activity and reached the conclusion on
appeal that "most people utilize RapidShare for legal use cases"[13] and that to assume otherwise was
equivalent to inviting "a general suspicion against shared hosting services and their users which is not
justified".[14] The court also observed that the site removes copyrighted material when asked, does not
provide search facilities for illegal material, noted previous cases siding with RapidShare, and after analysis
the court concluded that the plaintiff's proposals for more strictly preventing sharing of copyrighted material
– submitted as examples of anti-piracy measures RapidShare might have adopted – were found to be
"unreasonable or pointless".[12]
By contrast in January 2012 the United States Department of Justice seized and shut down the file hosting
site Megaupload.com and commenced criminal cases against its owners and others. Their indictment
concluded that Megaupload differed from other online file storage businesses, suggesting a number of
design features of its operating model as being evidence showing a criminal intent and venture.[15]
Examples cited included reliance upon advertising revenue and other activities showing the business was
funded by (and heavily promoted) downloads and not storage, defendants' communications helping users
who sought infringing material, and defendants' communications discussing their own evasion and
infringement issues. As of 2014 the case has not yet been heard.[16] A year later, Megaupload.com
relaunched as Mega.

In 2016 the file hosting site Putlocker has been noted by the Motion Picture Association of America for
being a major piracy threat,[17] and in 2012 Alfred Perry of Paramount Pictures listed Putlocker as one of
the "top 5 rogue cyberlocker services", alongside Wupload, FileServe, Depositfiles, and MediaFire.[18]

Security
The emergence of cloud storage services has prompted much discussion on security.[19] Security, as it
relates to cloud storage can be broken down into:

Access and integrity security

Deals with the question of confidentiality and availability, and may be expressed with questions of the kind:
Will the user be able to continue accessing their data? Who else can access it? Who can change it?

Whether the user is able to continue accessing their data depends on a large number of factors, ranging
from the location and quality of their internet connection, and the physical integrity of the provider's data
center, to the financial stability of the storage provider (because, even if perfectly fit from a technical point
of view, if the provider financially goes out of business, then its services go offline too).

The question of who can access and, potentially, change, their data, ranges from what physical access
controls are in place in the provider's data center to what technical steps have been taken, such as access
control, encryption, etc.

Many cloud storage services state that they either encrypt data before it is uploaded or while it is stored.
While encryption is generally regarded as best practice in cloud storage[20] how the encryption is
implemented is very important.

Consumer-grade, public file hosting and synchronization services are popular, but for business use, they
create the concern that corporate information is exported to devices and cloud services that are not
controlled by the organization.

Some cloud storage providers offer granular ACLs for application keys. One important permission is
append-only, which is distinct from simple "read", "write", and "read-write" permissions in that all existing
data is immutable.[21][22] Append-only support is especially important to mitigate the risk of data loss for
backup policies in the event that the computer being backed-up becomes infected with ransomware capable
of deleting or encrypting the victim's backups.[23][24]

Data encryption
Secret key encryption is sometimes referred to as zero knowledge, meaning that only the user has the
encryption key needed to decrypt the data. Since data is encrypted using the secret key, identical files
encrypted with different keys will be different. To be truly zero knowledge, the file hosting service must not
be able to store the user's passwords or see their data even with physical access to the servers. For this
reason, secret key encryption is considered the highest level of access security in cloud storage.[25] This
form of encryption is rapidly gaining popularity, with companies such as MEGA[26] (previously
Megaupload) and SpiderOak being entirely zero knowledge file storage and sharing.[27]

Since secret key encryption results in unique files, it makes data deduplication impossible and therefore
may use more storage space.[28]

Convergent encryption derives the key from the file content itself and means an identical file encrypted on
different computers result in identical encrypted files.[28] This enables the cloud storage provider to de-
duplicate data blocks, meaning only one instance of a unique file (such as a document, photo, music or
movie file) is actually stored on the cloud servers but made accessible to all uploaders. A third party who
gained access to the encrypted files could thus easily determine if a user has uploaded a particular file
simply by encrypting it themselves and comparing the outputs.[28]

Some point out that there is a theoretical possibility that organizations such as the RIAA, MPAA, or a
government could obtain a warrant for US law enforcement to access the cloud storage provider's servers
and gain access to the encrypted files belonging to a user.[29] By demonstrating to a court how applying the
convergent encryption methodology to an unencrypted copyrighted file produces the same encrypted file as
that possessed by the user would appear to make a strong case that the user is guilty of possessing the file in
question and thus providing evidence of copyright infringement by the user.

There is, however, no easily accessible public record of this having been tried in court as of May 2013 and
an argument could be made that, similar to the opinion expressed by Attorney Rick G. Sanders of Aaron |
Sanders PLLC in regards to the iTunes Match "Honeypot" discussion,[30] that a warrant to search the cloud
storage provider's servers would be hard to obtain without other, independent, evidence establishing
probable cause for copyright infringement. Such legal restraint would obviously not apply to the secret
police of an oppressive government who could potentially gain access to the encrypted files through
various forms of hacking or other cybercrime.

Ownership security

See also
Comparison of file hosting services
Comparison of file synchronization software
Comparison of online backup services
Comparison of online music lockers
File sharing
List of backup software
Shared disk access

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