It goes without saying that the cloud benefits your company. It brings flexibility, speed, and efficiency–but it also brings its own risks. All it can take is one small mistake for a cybercriminal to gain access to your systems and wreak havoc.
These are some of the ways your systems can be compromised:
- Poor Configuration: Just one misclicked setting can leave a massive hole in your security that a hacker can exploit.
- Unsecured Accounts: If your employees use weak passwords, or the same one from multiple accounts, a single security breach can snowball as an attacker hits you from more than one angle.
- Internal Problems: Whether through carelessness or malice, sometimes an employee can cause a data breach–downloading malware, leaking information, or giving someone else access to your systems.
While your cloud service provider has a role to play, part of the responsibility for your data security rests on your shoulders.
Everyone plays their part
The cloud works off of a shared responsibility model. That means that your service provider keeps their end of things safe—the hardware, software, and network—but you’re responsible for preventing breaches through your systems.
You know what matters most to you: your uptime, your clients and their data, and your reputation as a business partner. To keep all of those safe, you need to not only implement the right policies, but update them continuously to keep up with the unique workflow of the cloud.
Start with the fundamentals
There’s no one solution to the problem of cloud security, but there are some core practices that can keep you safe, without interfering with your operations and inconveniencing your team.
- Security checkups: You should regularly audit your cloud security for vulnerabilities and plug the gaps before they cause problems.
- Compliance checks: There are laws and industry expectations for data security. Don’t take shortcuts on these, or you expose yourself not just to information-related risks, but financial and legal ones as well.
- Identity and access management (IAM): Make sure user permissions are doled out as needed, not on a whim. Review these permissions regularly, to make sure no one has access they shouldn’t.
- Incident response planning: If something does go wrong, you should already have a plan for it. Your team should all know what they need to do to contain the damage, and how to do it quickly.
- Secure data: Keep your data encrypted at all times, including when it’s in transit. This way, even if the wrong person gets their hand on it, they can’t easily access it.
- Disaster recovery: While the cloud is very useful, you don’t want to be completely shut out of your operations if it goes down. Keeping your important data backed up in a separate location helps ensure business continuity.
It’s important to remember these are the bare fundamentals—you can’t afford to skip any of them if you want to maintain speed, security, and innovation all at once.
Enlist outside expertise
Cloud security is more than just a list of bullet points. You have to be proactive, consistent, and thorough in constantly updating and evaluating your security measures. It’s a process, not a switch you flip.
Thankfully, you’re not alone in all this. We can take a look at your cloud environment together, find the gaps in your security, and build a plan to plug them—one that’s tailored to your business model.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation, and we can get started on making your cloud environment a safer place
Schedule A Consultation Today
