cloud n. Somewhere you don't want to put your files. Insecure centralized location, usually administered by a megacorporation. The term "cloud computing" became popular after about 2010 to refer to putting your files onto a centralized server system which you don't own and have no control over - thereby exposing your data to numerous threats and "third party doctrine" legal disputes. The rise of cloud computing also eliminated many system administrator jobs within small companies, which had been a traditional source of income for many hackers. Companies could make their sysadmins redundant, but now a bigger megacorp controlled their asses. When hackers use "the cloud" it's a server which they have root on, and client side encryption may be used to ensure that whoever is administering the server can't get access to the data.