This, ever since a group of hackers leaked almost 68mn user accounts of the file hosting service Dropbox which included login e-mails and encrypted passwords.

Over the last few years, free and paid cloud-based data storage services and options have become a revolution for professionals who frequently travel for work.

Salim al Balushi, who uses Dropbox to upload his office documents as well as personal files, is concerned.

He said, 'I have been using the service for a few years and this news is disappointing. No one would like to have their personal as well as office matters leaked out. I make sure that I change my password frequently and am confident that I am not a victim of this mess. However, I will now have to think seriously about Dropbox's options.'

Laxmikanth, a designer who uses the service to upload his creative works to collaborate with like-minded people around the world, feels that his 'intellectual properties' will be at risk.

'I now plan to shift to services like frame.io and iCloud for safety as I don't want my hard work to end up in the hands of some useless people.'

Free stuff is never safe, said Tariq Hilal al Barwani, an IT expert and founder of Knowledge Oman said. 'It is upsetting to know that it has been hacked. Even iCloud is not safe and the best option is to go for paid services and also to change your password frequently.'

Prevention and protection are key and always assume you're next, said another IT expert, Nadra al Amri. 'The question is no longer about I being safe or unsafe, rather it is about when? The recent Dropbox incident is not shocking.

'You enter a username and password to gain access, which means an intruder can easily do the same. For example, if you don't change your password frequently then a 'brute force cracking' is all what an attacker would need to gain access. My advice would be to use a password generator to obtain a more complex combination of a password making it harder for an attacker to gain access.'

He added, 'Another form of prevention is to use different passwords for different sites. One site can be less secure than the other; if an attacker gains your password from one site then he will be able to gain access to all the other sites. This is the most common type of attack.

Amri stresses on one of the most important forms of protection the 'two factor authentication' (with something you know and something you have). 'You create a password for a certain site and in return, you receive a security code on your phone. This is time consuming and a lot of companies try to avoid it but it is one of the best methods for protection.'

Amri said it is always important to read the privacy policy of a company before signing up.

'Check the levels of encryption a company provides. We are still not at a mature level of understanding when it comes to cloud computing.

'Therefore, you should always proceed with caution and always remember that you are never 100 per cent secure as long you're plugged in.'