In this day and age, businesses have become increasingly dependent on the cloud. There are a number of benefits to working through the cloud. For one thing, it’s easier to maintain a system through digitization rather than keeping all important information in hard copies and paper documentation. Furthermore, it’s often much less expensive to operate through the cloud, which essentially allows employees to multitask and safely store their information. But then, as with any storage system, the cloud has its drawbacks. As the cloud has become more prevalent, hackers and other criminals have developed new ways to breach its security. For that matter, a security breach is not the only problem that can threaten the cloud. In some cases, the cloud can be used incorrectly or experience a systems failure that results in data being lost or corrupted. Fortunately, there are strategies and tools that can be used to ensure that the cloud is as secure as possible. Security threats are impossible to eliminate, but businesses can shield themselves from them.
1. Know What Should And Shouldn’t Be Stored On The Cloud
As it’s almost impossible to eliminate security threats to the cloud entirely, it’s important to instruct employees about what should and shouldn’t be kept in that system. It’s impossible to function in a number of different fields today without storing some types of information on the cloud. Therefore, a good compromise is to simply avoid storing information that is overly sensitive on the cloud. If certain types of information could completely compromise employees or customers if accessed unlawfully or corrupted, that information may be better off kept in hard copies that are physically locked away. On the other hand, some business owners may feel more confident if that information was also backed up on the cloud. It really depends on what kind of information is being dealt with.
2. Have A System For Passwords
One of the main security threats within the cloud, of course, is password weakness. It’s really as simple as a password being easy to hack, and an entire cloud system could be virtually broken into. Businesses are growing increasingly strict about keeping their cloud passwords in borderline incomprehensible formats, with a mixture of numbers, letters, and symbols. While these may be hard for employees to remember, it’s often considered safer than the alternative of having readable passwords, which would be easier for hackers to crack. Passwords should also be regularly changed, perhaps as often as monthly. Though this strategy may be somewhat aggravating for people to keep up with, it’s a simple way to resolve a lot of network security problems.
3. Encrypt Files
While encryption may be intimidating at first, it’s vital to warding off some network security threats. Essentially, encryption involves moving a file to the cloud with certain types of software. This software will allow you to create a password for the file itself, which means that anyone who is able to break into the cloud still won’t be able to access the file without a password. Normally, these protected files would be zipped. This zipping process can be time-consuming, but with the right processes in place, it should become second nature for employees attempting to secure information. Of course, there are also cloud storage encryption services, which would provide local encryption and decryption themselves. These types of services make the security of information stored in the cloud easier to accomplish.
4. Use Backup Services
Unfortunately, the cloud isn’t flawless, which means that it can experience outages and system collapses. This is why it’s crucial for businesses to have a disaster recovery system in place, which would back up the cloud and ensure that it would be much less likely to collapse in the first place. Of course, if you do have a disaster recovery system in place, you should test it regularly to ensure that it’s working correctly; this is something that just 25% of all organizations do.
There is no single foolproof way to make sure that information is kept safe and secure. But following a system can help businesses ensure that the cloud works for them, just as it should.