Ten Ways to Stay Safe and Secure in the Cloud

Cloud computing is a new normal in today’s corona-stricken world. Business are realizing that they don’t want to be Data Center Business; they want to focus on growing and optimizing their business. Cloud computing offers many lucrative features like scalability, flexibility and cost control which give you many benefits as a business. However, these benefits should not come at the expense of your business data. Yes, we are talking about cloud security.

While cloud vendors offer plenty of security features to keep your data safe and secure, there is always room for improvement when it comes to securing your sensitive information. These security features also not always enable out of the box. Your business data is your most valuable asset and you should make every effort to keep it protected from unauthorized access.

Let’s explore some of the trusted ways you can keep your business data secure in the cloud:

Your password is your strongest barricade against a possible intrusion by a hacker. Keeping a predictable password that mentions your name, birthday or home address is the easiest way you can compromise on safety of your business data.

A strong password creates a first strong security layer around your business data. Therefore, you need to make sure that all your team members have a strong password that includes alphabets, numbers and special characters. All these password elements should be sequenced in random order.

A longer password makes it impossible for the hackers to intrude into a cloud account. The longer passwords can be difficult to remember, so you should provide your team with a password manager to help them remember their passwords.

Creating a strong password should not be your only way to secure your business data on cloud. Your team should change that password on a regular basis to avoid getting hacked by an intruder. Make sure that every team member changes his/her password at least once after three months.

Keeping the same password for all your cloud accounts makes your business data vulnerable to a brute force attack. If an intruder hacks one of your accounts, it will be much easier for him to hack the rest of them. Therefore, you need to keep different passwords for different accounts to avoid a potential hack attempt to your multiple cloud accounts.

A two-factor authentication adds an extra security level to your password-protected data. A two-factor authentication will make sure that no person other than your authorized team members can access your business data.

In a two-factor authentication, a user must enter a code sent to his email or mobile phone to get access to an account which restricts the access only to authorized personnel of an account. The majority of cloud vendors offer this security feature and you should turn it on if your cloud vendor has this feature in the offering.

File encryption provides an additional security layer to sensitive business data. Many cloud service provider offers encryption service which converts a data into a code and a password is required to decode the data. They offer encryption services for both the stored files and files in transit.

There is a possibility of a hack to your cloud vendor and if it happens it will include codes of your encrypted files. To avoid such an intrusion, you should hire a third-party encryption service to encrypt your business files. So even if the data of a cloud vendor gets hacked, it will not expose your sensitive information to the hacker.

Having multiple storages of your files is another way you can secure your business data. While cloud storage provides a reliable back-up of your files, it shouldn’t be the only source to access your files. If cloud storage crashes, it will cost you a significant loss as a result of downtime.

And in the worst case scenario, if the cloud vendor suffers at the hand of a major hack, you will be left with no data at all. To avoid such a scenario, you should make multiple back-ups of your files. This will not only keep you functioning even when the cloud service is down but will also save you from losing your sensitive data at the hands of hackers.

In case your cloud vendor doesn’t have much offering in terms of data security, you can always trust an online security service to protect your business data. An online security service offers end-to-end security features for your data whether it is at rest or in transit.

Your business data is your valuable asset. Therefore, it is worth every penny that is spent to make it secure and hiring an online security service does just that.

To keep your data under a strong layer, you should make training an important part of your data security agenda. You should train your staff regarding the different security aspects and how they should be integrated with their daily workings.

Educate your team members about the importance of password protection, file encryption, malware attacks and other hacking tactics. Share with them the best practices to keep their data safe and secure on cloud.

Regular security assessment is essential to keep an eye on areas of vulnerability in data security. Many cloud service providers offer security assessment solutions to keep you abreast of security loopholes and vulnerabilities with regard to your data privacy.

Pay particular attention to audit reports of your cloud vendors and follow their recommendations regarding best practices for data security. You can even hire a third-party data security firm to perform security assessment for your cloud data.

Finally, you should get your business data insured to avoid the financial damages in case a security lapse compromises sensitive information of your employees and clients. With cybersecurity insurance, you can be assured of getting compensated for the financial loss as a result of a cyberattack.

Cloud computing is a safe place to store your business data. But data security is an important concern even for the major cloud vendors. Therefore, you should leave no stone unturned when it comes to security of your business data and this is the purpose that the information in this article seeks to serve.