In our modern age, it is natural to want to modernize your business in order to keep up with the times and keep customers interested, so investing in the cloud can often seem like a natural pathway for changing businesses, but it does come with some risks. Not paying attention to the very real risks of compromising cloud security – which can seem like a faraway, non-important issue – can cost you greatly, and, at worst, could ruin your business. Customers put their trust in you to keep them and their data safe, so compromising that can be the absolute faux par, which will destroy your business’ reputation and ensure that no future success can be enjoyed. But enough with the fear-mongering: how can you stop these security slips ever happening in the first place? Knowledge is your best tool, so knowing about the dangers often prevents them from becoming issues.
Access Control
One of the cloud’s biggest selling points is that it can be accessed from anywhere, by anyone. This is great, but it also leads to one common mistake, which can end up costing your company a lot of business and, most probably, money: don’t let everyone access your cloud networks. Once you open the floodgates, everyone has a chance to rush in and take whatever data they want. Genuine customers could utilize your cloud network, but hackers who want to steal sensitive information such as passwords and bank details will also make use of it, which you definitely don’t want. Limit access to your cloud network as much as possible, without limiting yourself; make sure that the people who need to access it can and that it’s at least password protected, so that no one else is sneaking in and potentially ruining your business.
Maintenance
“Not keeping your cloud software up-to-date is probably one of the worst mistakes that you can make, but it’s a worryingly common one,” says Joni Martin, a tech writer at Writing Services and Revieweal, “and it often comes from a place of ‘maintenance and patches will cost time, money and resources that we don’t need to waste, it’ll be fine’, which is the complete wrong attitude to have. Every single time your software isn’t updated, vulnerabilities appear, which hackers will have knowledge of (due to patch notes and bug fixes lists and so on, all available to everyone on the internet), so you put yourself needlessly at a higher and higher risk of getting a security breach, which will cost you more than maintenance ever would. So, do yourself a favour and don’t be afraid to spend a little to save a lot, by keeping software up-to-date at all times.”
Back-Ups
However, even seemingly airtight, fully updated systems can have breaches, so you do need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, no matter how much you’ve worked to prevent it. In the case of a security breach, you won’t be able to keep using the cloud data which was compromised, so it is recommended to have a back-up set of data ready in order to keep business as usual without ruining users’ experience with your company, possibly causing even more damage to your reputation. Back-ups are a safe way to ensure that breaches can be handled without the added pressure of customer complaints piling up, because a website or online service has been down for an extended period of time, which gives you more time and space to sort out the real issue.
Physical Security
“It is easy to get lost in the cyber world of the cloud, and fail to realise that there are real security risks in the physical world as well.” Taylor Stamp, a survey analyst at UKWritings and Boomessays, states. “You will have servers, so are they in a secure location? Do you keep track of who has the keys/access, or are they in a very public section of your workplace? All of these things, and more, need to be considered. For example, your cloud network becomes compromised. Do you have a way to quickly wipe data from employee devices in order to lessen the impact? You should. Considering physical security is extremely important, even when working with networks in the cloud.”
Author Bio: Aimee Laurence, a specialist email marketer, also contributes to major websites such as Assignment writing help in Brisbane and Buy UK essay. Editing and proofreading documents for these companies is one of her passions, along with blogging at State Of Writing on various topics, from business to software.
Aimee Laurence is a guest blogger. Her opinions are her own.
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