5 Tips for Cloud Security

Cloud storage, in more recent years, has become a resource that so many of us depend on for work, school, and in personal lives. As we continue to learn more about cloud computing, it is important that we discuss the possibility of serious cloud security breaches and the potential damage that they can inflict on users on a wide scale. Here are five tips to help organizations, regardless of their size, prevent cloud security threats. 

1. Educate

One step that organizations can take to prevent cloud security threats is to ensure that they are educating their employees on how to avoid such risks. This can be easily achieved by promoting a work environment that allows for mutual involvement and including the entire workforce whenever there is a security training to ensure that everyone stays on the same page. The more invested employees are in protecting company assets, the more likely they are to take ownership of their actions online and actively play a role in avoiding cyber-threats. In the event that a potential threat does occur, you should have some type of response protocol in place that makes sense for your line of work and can be easily accessed in case of an emergency. This can be as simple as creating a document that offers employees specific steps to follow according to the scenario they find themselves in. Half of the learning process is retention and what better way to ensure that your business is safe than by running unannounced security checks. There are tools that exist that allow you to send simulated phishing emails to see if your office would take the appropriate action given the scenario. Using your personalized feedback from these tests, you can create security  refresher courses that target any weaknesses within your protocol plan. 

2. Establish a Secure Data Backup Plan

As cloud storage continues to evolve in nature, the risk of permanent data loss remains high. You can keep your company safe by keeping an updated and secure backup of all important data. To add even more protection, your data and applications should also be distributed across multiple zones. Feel free to reach out to us anytime if you are in need of IT support or would like a briefing on the best management practices including tips on daily data backup, offsite storage, and disaster recovery. 

3. Encryption & Key Storage 

Cloud encryption is a crucial step to ensuring that your information is protected as it allows for data and text to be transformed using specialized systems before it is stored on the cloud. Don’t be afraid to ask your provider how data is managed! To ensure that your data is secure before it leaves your business, you can encrypt at the network’s edge for an added level of protection on the movement of data in the cloud. From here, keep both the keys that encrypt and decipher your information to ensure that all requests for information must go through you. These encryption keys should not be stored using the same software where you store your data. 

4. Examine Your Passwords Carefully

Did you know that 90% of passwords can be cracked within seconds? Due to our limited ability to remember complex credentials, there is a temptation that is associated with password reuse. This is one of the easiest risk categories that most people fall into. Protect yourself and your information by coming up with unique, original passwords to deter hackers from each of your accounts or invest in a secure password manager that works for you. 

5. Evaluate Who has Access

Now that you’ve taken steps towards securing the location of your data, it’s time to take a look at who can retrieve this information. Be proactive and put security measures in place to make sure that your data is secure. One way you can up your cyber-security is to install a smartphone access control system that allows you to easily manage users and assign door access from virtually anywhere.