Cloud computing has revolutionised IT. Recently, cloud computing has become nearly universal among businesses of all sizes. This is due to the benefits of rapid deployment, flexibility, minimal up-front costs and scalability.
Public cloud platforms’ security is handled by their provider, but the security of your cloud access is entirely your responsibility. If someone manages to obtain your login details, there is nothing to stop them downloading sensitive information or deleting files. This could be devastating for your business, especially if your data in the cloud is not backed up.
How To Protect Access To Your Cloud Data
It’s vital that you secure the access to your data in the cloud. Let’s examine at some of the ways we’ve helped our customers secure their cloud services.
- Use Multi Factor Authentication
Your data in the cloud is far too valuable to simply rely on a simple username and password combination. Using a code from an app like Microsoft Authenticator to confirm your login will make your data exponentially more secure. - Limit How Data Can Be Shared
This should begin by assigning people or groups to the roles of either viewer or editor. Then and limiting what information can be shared outside via shared links.You should restrict your data so that it can only accessed by authorised users. It’s also good practice to restrict it to only be accessed by authorised devices as well. Access should only be permitted from devices which fall under your organisation’s mobile device management policies. - Use Encryption
Encryption can prevent data being accessed by hackers even if they are able to steal it from the cloud during a data breach. Although the encryption provided by a cloud provider protects your data, the provider retains access to your encryption keys. For even greater security, it is advisable to encrypt your data with your own keys. This gives you complete control over who can access it. - Monitor Access
Which users are accessing your cloud and what data they are accessing is something that needs to be monitored. The access logs for your cloud services should be regularly reviewed and any abnormal access patterns should be flagged and investigated. As part of Carden IT’s cloud management service, we monitor all access to our clients’ cloud assets. Our cyber-defence team will follow up on anything suspicious. - Always Have A Backup
Having a secure, up to date backup of your cloud storage is a fail-safe against any potential data loss. This redundancy can be a backup to physical storage or to another cloud platform. - Categorise Your Data
One of the first steps in protecting your data in the cloud is to accurately classify that data. Files which include sensitive data such as customer bank details or other personal information should have their own category. Some businesses may just have two categories, for normal data and sensitive data. Others may need to segment their data into several distinct categories.
How Carden IT Services Can Help With Your Cloud Security
Fortunately, we’re not just cloud service experts at Carden IT Services; we’re also cybersecurity experts! We can assist you in establishing a security-first cloud environment. Our managed cloud services include cloud access security.
Our cyber-defence and managed cloud services teams can help implement all the solutions listed above and more. We’ve helped businesses of all sizes to improve the efficiency and data security of their cloud environments. If you want 100% control over your cloud environment, we can help you build you an in-house private cloud. We’ve even helped businesses create hybrid cloud environments which incorporate elements of both public and private cloud solutions.
Worried about the security of your cloud network? About to make the leap into cloud computing but don’t know where to start? Speak to our team today.
