Can you guarantee the data you have stored on the cloud is safe? It could be a little harsh to state it this way but the point is, you can’t. Yes, this is the fact that’s actually muddling everyone from CEOs of most reputed organizations to those of small businesses and every individual storing private data on the cloud.
Don’t worry, its not really even that bad though with security teams of cloud service providers burning the candle on both ends in keeping away the attackers from your data. However, there are many protective measures you can take on your part to ensure maximum integrity and security of your data on the cloud. In this article we mention a few very important steps, we suggest you to implement at the earliest.
(If at all you are new to the entire cloud thing, here’s what you should check out first – click here)
Here are 5 Mantras on Cloud Data Security for you:
- Passwords – Be More Than Careful
You must have come across this warning many a times in your daily routine. But the fact is, people don’t really learn from others mistakes. If it were the case, the stats that 90% of all the passwords can be cracked within seconds would have just been a myth. But unfortunately it’s the truth. Until and unless you create strong passwords, almost everything you put on the internet can be compromised in no time. So make sure you follow these fundamental rules while setting up passwords anywhere on the internet:
- Use a strong and difficult to guess password.
- Never share your passwords with strangers, and to some point even with peers.
- Also set up different passwords to different accounts.
- Prefer using a standard password manager, and for lot more about them, click here.
- Sensitive Information – Opt storing elsewhere
This might sound crazy, but considering the safety first rule, use the virtual world for data storage as less as possible. There’s actually no other alternative to storing your data on the internet and praying for no evil eyes to target it. However the best suggestion, if you are an individual would be to store less sensitive information on the cloud and opt for other means.
In case you are a company, you could go for the hybrid cloud model and deploy other tools like, say, honeypot etc.
- Encrypted Cloud Storage – For Businesses
If you are ready to invest big on cloud data security, then this option is always available for you. These encrypted cloud storage services in addition to storage and backup, also provides facilities like encryption and decryption of all the data in your local machine. This is termed as the ‘zero-knowledge’ privacy, and is the highest level of cloud security in the market.
Under this condition, no one except you, not even the personals running the cloud (service providers) can access your information. To name a few, Spideroak, Dropbox, Box are all such service providers. But the most important part lies in identifying the potency of data at hand and deciding whether or not to invest big for its security.
- B1 Free Archiver – The low budget encryption
Not every business can invest that big in reaching out for encrypted cloud services, but there are a lot of other alternatives as well. B1 Free Archiver, for example does a really good job. Likewise, there are a lot of tools over there in the internet which can encrypt all your data and protect it with a password.
The additional benefit especially with B1 Free Archiver is that once encrypted, the entire data is converted into the B1 file format and any computer on which this data is being accessed needs to have B1 Free Archiver installed on it and this tool (archiver) is believed to be more safer and effective than the zip files.
- Cloud Data Security – Knowledge Matters!
Believe it or not, without knowing what you are doing, just deploying a cloud model will only get you into trouble. The best way to be prepared to any of the bizarre consequences is to have complete knowledge on the cloud model (public, private or hybrid) you require, the terms of the cloud service provider and lots of analysis to maintain the perfect balance between protection and time/money.
Other than all these, with the sensitivity of data stored, physical security denying unauthorized access into the data center is also mostly suggested. Call it preparing for bad times, in addition to the above mentioned mantras make sure you read the terms and conditions of the cloud service provider carefully, believe me you don’t want to hand your most valuable data into the hands of someone playing fool with you.
