Cloud System Security Can Be Tricky

If your business is taking advantage of the cloud to meet its operational and data storage needs, then you’re already doing something right. The cloud has changed the way businesses function, but this also needs to extend to the way businesses think about data security. How is your business or cloud provider securing your critical business data and applications stored in the cloud?

We’ve put together a list of four major pain points that you’ll want to discuss with your cloud provider or IT department, whether it’s hosted off-site in a data center or in-house on an internal infrastructure.

End-to-End Encryption
Data needs to be protected, whether it’s on the network or it’s moving somewhere else on the infrastructure. This is where encryption comes in. Encryption keeps data from being stolen through one simple method--scrambling it so that nobody can read it even if it is stolen. The way encryption works is by jumbling the data, leading to only those with the proper encryption key to be able to see the data. Encryption is little more than a security caution, but it’s an important one all the same, as it ensures that even if you do suffer a data breach, your attackers won’t be able to read the data without doing a lot of extra work.

Physical Security Measures
Let’s say you host your cloud solutions off-site in a data center. This data center needs to have security measures put in place to keep out not only digital intruders, but physical ones as well. This can include having armed security patrols, biometric authentication procedures, and constant monitoring for any intruders. If you host in-house, you should have similar physical security solutions. Always be sure to have your servers monitored and stored in only the most secure of rooms.

Compliance Regulations
Depending on your organization's industry, you may be subject to very specific compliance regulations. For example, any organization associated with health records is subject to HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, meaning that they must meet stringent guidelines or face penalties in the form of fines and other accountability measures put in place by the act.

Standard (Scalable) Security Measures
The same security measures you would use to protect your in-house network also need to be protecting your cloud-based systems. This includes an antivirus, firewall, spam blocker and content filter. This is all to ensure that your business’ cloud solution is secure from external and internal threats. A Unified Threat Management solution can provide all of these at an enterprise level for your cloud-based network assets.

SCW can help your business secure its cloud-based resources through the implementation of proactive and preventative solutions. To learn more, reach out to us at (509) 534-1530.