Tips on Cloud Storage for SMBs to protect Corporate and Personal Data

The usage of technology because of our dependency on it is increasing day by day that eventually led to having more trailblazing developments but with some security precariousness. Perhaps, that is not only with technology everything in this world has two sides, however, with proper measures we could refrain ourselves to become prey.

One of the technology development which SMBs are using on a large scale now days is Cloud storage, moreover, a common user like you and I are also not untouched from it. We too are now somewhere getting benefits of Cloud storage weather saving our photos & videos on google photos or syncing our call history and messages on Truecaller, all of them are on cloud storage. However, here we are talking exclusively about the enterprises where data is more valuable than anything else.

So, what is the key thing which a person or company should do while using cloud storages, of course, Data backup, we all know that, right?

According to a report published: 53% of companies found over 1,000 sensitive files exposed to all employees. Also, lots of small business owners have only one copy of all their data. This can be very dangerous, don’t put all your data on one machine. As per 2019 Kaspersky survey data around 36 per cent of SMBs have been suffered by the Data Breaches.

So, such kinds of surveys show us that there are a lot of companies those somewhere are neglecting the security steps they ought to be taken in order to provide their customers with the expected level of service. Furthermore, many of them do not have centralized data for access which shows bad customer service, sales loss, or team collaboration issues to an organization.

Therefore, a low eye towards data security erupts another key loss of financial benefits if the customer cannot wait for the data outage to be corrected.

Well, that’s true whether it is about cloud storage or local there is no absolute security. However, with the right hardware and software technologies, we can ensure it to the best level. The great thing is, we don’t need to go anywhere, everything is there with the cloud provider who’s servicing you are using and I am sure most of the Admins or Services already have properly activated and implemented that for the users. One of them is the security credential most users are familiar with, is in the form of password. But Cloud storage security vendors are providing way more than you can secure data using other means as well, such as Advanced Firewalls, Intrusion Detection, Event Logging, Internal Firewalls, Encryption, and physical security.

As per the TechnoBind, a specialist Distributor in the Indian IT channel space: Security breaches are rarely caused by poor cloud data protection. More than 40% of data security breaches occur due to employee error.

“With so many advantages of cloud computing, there is still a long way for the people to go. A small number of enterprises and businesses are using cloud technology today. Technology like the cloud is important for today’s businesses as it reduces operational cost, increases work efficiency and accuracy. Organizations should start migrating their applications to cloud to protect their users’ data during unexpected disasters such as what we have in hand right now due to COVID-19. Apart from safety, the cloud offers innumerable benefits on the grounds of flexibility, safety, and reliability. It is not just a few servers strung together with Cat5 chords. Instead, it’s a system comprised of thousands of servers typically stored in a spaceship-sized warehouse-or several hundred spaceship-sized warehouses, which secure the data by way of implementing resiliency at a scale unheard of at every level of the infrastructure.” said Mr. Adrian Johnson, Director Technology at TechnoBind

Here are a few tips which we can follow to improve user security to make cloud storage more secure.

Enable Multi-factor authentication

Today, the majority of the reputed cloud storage services come with multiple authentications. And you should opt for such cloud storage service if you haven’t yet; because many people’s password security awareness is either not strong or they inadvertently set it a too simple one or all platforms use the same account password. Thus, in such scenarios, the multiple verification processes are particularly important and one of them we are quite acquainted is Two-factor authentication or OTP process.

We assume that the theft of a cloud storage password is a low probability event, and the theft of a second verification code is way lower than that. Thus, the probability of stealing password + verification code at the same time is an extremely low probability instance. That’s why secondary verification is widely used in online banking, electronic payment and other fields.

The use of multiple factors requires an attacker to acquire multiple, independent authentication elements which reduced the events of getting compromised.

Permissions management of team members or access control

So, whatever cloud storage you have it should offer efficient permission management to access storage. I mean, your all team member should not have equal access to files and it is good if you would be able to centrally manage the permissions of team members, from a Dashboard of the cloud service you are using.

Now, what do I mean with permission management? As we know all the employees of the company do not need to know everything about the company’s decisions, thus in the same the permission to access files stored on Cloud. Set different permissions for data access to different employees, such as “which employees can have the viewing permission” and “which employees can have the editing permission”.

Moreover, the company should be able to restrict IP, I mean to enhance the security of data, the employee of your company must be able to access the sensitive data or project files stored on cloud storage using only the company’s IP address this will prevent login him or her via some un-trustful location or network, that could result in file leakage. Further, due to COVID-19 work from home culture, if they need, give them access to files via SSH tunnels or VPN.

Another thing which I am remembering right now is the ability of the administrator to remotely revoke the user’s cloud storage permission.

Back up data consistently

Yes, this is a point that everybody knows, all the small businesses already performing it, right? No, not all of them, there are many companies taking backup of their data once in a year. Thus, they should be making copies of data at regular intervals.

Store your business data in two different places, one on the local servers and another backup in a safe off-site location. Enterprises should have a local backup with high security so that they can quickly find and access it inside the company premises; this will not only reduce their load on Cloud, where the usage of bandwidth is paid but also attenuate the chances of accidentally deleted, lost and overwritten the data stored on secure cloud.

Small businesses should learn to safely copy stored files to a remote location. If there is a problem with their location or equipment, all equipment and data of the enterprise can be kept safe. Even in today’s world, people still use tape backup and offsite backup, and now there are many options available for offsite backup based on cloud computing.

Keeping data backup in a separate location in case of vulnerability. This can help protect your company against significant losses in the event of a breach.

Usage of Data loss prevention tools in the cloud

We can integrate tools provided by the Cloud storage and other companies for data loss prevention into the enterprise’s secure cloud storage infrastructure. DLP tools are a key component of cloud computing, their purpose is to make sure that there is no unauthorized user access, as well as the sensitive data, is not lost or misused. They can help to prevent data leakage and data loss, as well as check incoming / outgoing traffic. This will ensure that the company’s data remains in the system, and there will be no accidental and malicious data loss.

Secure end-user devices:

All devices that access the cloud-based resources should be subject to advanced endpoint security.

Encryption of data in transition must be end to end:

All interactions with servers should happen over SSL transmission (TLS 1.2) to ensure the highest level of security. The SSL should terminate only within the cloud service provider network.