When cloud tech first made its debut in the world of business, many people were scared off by the security risks, and decided to stick with their in-house, physical servers. As cloud security has become more sophisticated, these concerns have begun to die down. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be thinking about security when it comes to using the cloud! Here are some of my best tips for creating a cloud safety net for yourself.
Read the User Agreements
All of us have been prompted with a massive column of text at some point that we didn’t want to read, and all of us have clicked “I agree” without so much as scanning the first line! While this is fine for installing a new game on your tablet, it’s something I really can’t condone when it comes to cloud user agreements. Whenever you’re checking out a cloud service that you’re thinking of using for your business, be sure to find and read the user agreement attached to it. You’ll have to chew through a lot of boring and useless information, I know. However, these agreements will also contain some pretty important information about how secure the service is overall.
Think About Backup
Source: Flickr
Despite what some people might tell you, the most important feature of cloud services isn’t the storage capacity or how versatile the sharing features are. When you boil it all down, the most important thing to consider when choosing your cloud service is its data redundancy and disaster recovery measures. If and when your business runs into a full-blown data disaster, the backup service you’re receiving is only as good as the recovery options you’ll be able to tap into. Ask different cloud providers about the procedure for recovering any files that your business might lose, and consider how this will impact any important processes at your company. It may sound like overkill, but you should also try to find out about the physical security of the service provider’s data center. All your important information is going to be stored off-site, so you’re not going to have much control over who has access to it. The provider, however, does, and it’s an important point to look into before you come to a decision.
Take Passwords Seriously
You’ve probably been hearing about the importance of strong passwords for decades now, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be making a point to follow it! 90% of passwords can be hacked within seconds, and as hackers become more sophisticated the importance of reliable password protection is only going to grow. Make sure that all administrator passwords follow the latest guidelines, and have them changed regularly enough to avoid any expensive breaches. You may even want to set up an authenticator system, which will randomize passwords and send them to your employees’ mobile devices each time they want to log in. authenticator services for a whole business can be a little costly, true. However, can you really put a price on your business’s most important data?
