The cloud is the latest buzzword across the IT spectrum. While cloud solutions are known for their flexibility, scalability and reliability, they can also pose security risks. This is particularly relevant for public clouds where your cloud service management provider is responsible for hosting your data and applications. In this brief post, we will discuss ten important cloud security tips that can keep your cloud hosting server risk-free. 

So, let’s go through these tips one by one.

1) Strong Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication

This cannot be emphasized enough. In light of the increasing incidence of data breaches, keeping a weak, easily-guessable password puts you on the risk of a cloud security breach. 

Passwords should be at least 8 or more characters long. Use a mix of upper and lower characters, numbers and special characters. Never use any of your personal information or commonly used phrases such as ‘password123’, ‘qwerty123’ or ‘987654321’ as passwords. 

Change all your passwords every three months or so. Also, never use the same password for two or more services. And, last but not the least, never reuse old passwords. 

To keep a track of these complex passwords, you can use a password manager such as LastPass or Dashlane. With a password manager in place, all you need to remember is one master password. 

In addition to this, apply two-factor authentication for users to access cloud hosting services if your vendor allows.

2) Encryption

Choose a cloud service provider that offers local encryption of data. In local encryption, the data gets encrypted before it gets stored on the cloud and has to be decrypted for access. This method protects your information even from your service providers and administrators. 

If you need an even higher level of cloud security, you can encrypt the data yourself before storing it over the cloud. To facilitate this, you can use third-party tools for data encryption that automatically encrypt files when you are done with editing.

3) Backup

Merely signing up for cloud or any other hosting service does not automatically offer back up protection to your data. You have to ensure there is a provision for data backup in the contract of your service provider. 

In addition to the backup offered by the service provider, it’s imperative that you maintain a local copy of your data. You can create a local back up either on another cloud or on an external storage device, preferably on both. External storage devices come in handy in case of slow or no internet connection.

4) Anti-Malware

You may take all measures possible to secure your cloud service but what if there is no proper protection in your system to safeguard your data and applications? Malware such as virus, spyware and Trojans can offer penetration points to malicious users to access your sensitive data. Installing a reliable anti-malware and updating it from time to time is, therefore, crucial.

5) User Policies

Because cloud services can be accessed from any location, implementing stringent user policies is crucial. These policies dictate who all can access the cloud, when and from where. Even if you have strict policies in place, reckless behavior on account of users can put your data at risk. 

For instance, you may have employees who leave their PCs unlocked and remain logged onto the cloud service when not using it, or use an unsecured Wi-Fi connection to access the cloud. Keeping the users informed of the possible repercussions of such behavior is vital. 

6) Access to Mobile Devices

These days, a lot of apps allow users to access cloud services through mobile devices. If you allow employees and other users to access cloud services on their mobile, there need to be strict policies in place in order to ensure no compromise occurs on this part. Any device that accesses your cloud services should be completely controlled and managed by your IT team. 

7) Secure Communication

Secure communication protocols need to be implemented in order to safeguard all communications happening with the cloud hosting server. Many times, when encrypted communications fail or are not supported by the parties involved, the default is to switch to unencrypted communications. Such an option should remain disabled.

8) Tracking of Data

Since organizations (including yours) tend to produce a huge amount of data every single day, keeping track of this data is vital. Where do you store your critical data? You may not have all the data on the cloud. Some of this may be on the PCs, laptops or mobile devices of your employees, some of it may be residing on local servers while some of it may be with your clients.  

Wherever your data may be, many times it’s possible to copy the data into a hardware device and transfer it outside your office. In addition to this, you may have data that’s no longer active and poses a threat if not properly handled.  Regardless of whatever you do with this data-archive it, delete it or use it for analysis-you need to have measures in place to make sure it’s safe.

9) Service Contract

Your service contract should clearly state who is responsible for the safety and security of your servers, data and applications. There should not be any ambiguity in the terms of the contract that can lead to confusion and chaos in later stages.

10) Testing 

Just because your server is hosted on the cloud does not mean it’s secure. You need to test the security of your cloud service taking help from your service provider. Security scan, penetration testing and vulnerability assessment tools can help you understand if there’re any potential issues with respect to your server hosting that you need to address. 

While the cloud offers a platform for seamless running of data and applications, it can pose serious security challenges. To ensure these challenges do not impede the day-to-day functioning of your business, you need to adopt some security practices and make sure they get implemented properly.