Currently, cyber security is a significant concern. In addition to safeguarding their data, businesses want to ensure the security of their customer’s and client’s data. However, changes in the workplace have also had an impact on cyber security.
Cyber security threats have become increasingly prevalent as businesses worldwide move to work from home. It has become easier to access a company and its customer’s data since people are taking their laptops home to public networks, which can be hacked and leaving access details such as passwords scribbled on notebooks.
It was said that the cloud was the saving grace. In addition to retraining staff for cybersecurity, moving data to the cloud was a practical solution. However, it’s been a few years since the cloud became popular. In this guide, we explore what cloud storage and security are. Is the cloud still the answer to all our cyber security problems? Is using the cloud risky?
The cloud – what is it?
As a practical matter, platforms like Dropbox and Google Drive are cloud storage options. “The cloud” refers to a storage server accessed over the internet. These days, most users have cloud storage space on their laptops and PCs, which is the main selling point. You can access and retrieve your internet data without using your computer’s memory.
How does the cloud benefit you?
A cloud-based computer can be simulated or “virtualized ” using virtualization technology,” making it behave like a hardware computer. The servers become multiple, the data centers become diverse, and many customers can be occupied simultaneously. Thus, they make the most efficient use of the hardware that hosts them.
The benefit of the cloud is that you’ll never lose all access to your data. It’s important to remember that the cloud should never go down. Even if one server goes down, cloud servers should always remain online so that you can access them. You should also back up your data on multiple servers so you never lose your data.
A lot of significant security benefits come with using the cloud; not only is your data backed up but it is backed up into a non-physical database run by a team whose sole purpose is to maintain security. On a private server, security is a top priority, as well as a range of management tasks, but the sole purpose of the team for a cloud server is to guarantee security. Hence, cloud security is as important as physical access security for any commercial or industrial building.
The alarmingly high rate of cyber security issues stems from employees who have access to your data, even though it’s not fun to address. In contrast, your sensitive data is much harder for employees to access if it is kept off-site, in a cloud. Data protection tools can grade and enhance security, including passwords, fingerprints, face recognition, device verification, and personal questions.
Cloud computing also makes government compliance and cyber security regulations much more accessible since access to the cloud is encrypted, meaning hackers or anyone unauthorized to access the data cannot ride your network connection.
Does using the cloud come with any risks?
A business might be able to access the cloud’s data with a spoon by simply looking at it because companies have their levels of security. Insufficient cyber security strategies lead to cloud data breaches primarily caused by misconfiguration.
There are a few causes for this, including the fundamental nature of the cloud, which allows anyone to access it, and businesses cannot view or control cloud infrastructure. Therefore, they rely on the cyber security controls provided by the cloud service provider (or CSP).
Secondly, there is the risk of unauthorized access. With the internet, an easily accessible public resource for most of the world, hackers can easily access data if they have the credentials to get past the security measures set by the individual company. When security is not configured well, or certificates such as passwords and secret questions are compromised, attackers can easily access the cloud. This is where the horror of internal cloud breaches occurs.
Hackers can access credentials in various ways, not only through employees. Phishing is a widespread means of gaining information that would allow access to customer or business data.
It is also easy for an attacker to access cloud data using the simple nature of sharing data. In many cases, data access is granted with a link to someone external, which can then be forwarded, either sold or stolen, to the attacker.
Conclusion
In addition to money, activism, and simply fun, hackers do what they do for many reasons. Some hackers access cloud data to blackmail a company or a customer. Others do it to prove their ability to do what they do. Others want to prove they can do what they wish to do.
Limited access to your data is of the utmost importance to any business, but whether the cloud is the best way to do that is debatable. However, the cloud offers many cyber security advantages over typical physical data storage and individual servers.