How Safe is your Cloud Storage from Data Loss?
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Data is almost anyone’s most crucial asset. Managing and storing such massive data becomes problematic, especially for growing companies and companies with large data volumes.
One way could be to build an on-premise data centre, but only some companies can afford such an infrastructure. Most companies choose cloud storage. Cloud storage services have become an enormous industry, making easy access even more attractive.
However, people still ask how secure is cloud storage. This guide will discuss the risks of cloud storage, pros and cons, best practices, and security of cloud storage.
What is Cloud Storage?
Let’s first learn what is cloud data storage. Cloud storage is when a company stores data on remote devices that some other companies possess. The data is accessible via the internet, and anyone from any device in the world can access it.
Cloud storage is a modern approach that allows businesses to store their data without worrying about maintaining a data centre in their office buildings. It can run every application. All it needs is an internet connection.
Our predefined storage locations use Microsoft's Azure cloud storage or Wasabi.com
What is guaranteed
Our predefined storage locations.
This is because we use Microsoft’s and Wasabi’s cloud storage. Both are certified for ISO 27001 and SOC 2. These are two of the top five most reliable and secure cloud storage providers in the world, and they will protect your data from corruption, hardware failure and compromise.
What is Not guaranteed
Your storage.
Our software has embedded connectors to other cloud storage providers, FTP targets, local disks and drives, UNC and NAS devices, and many others.
You can configure our service to back up client data in London and Singapore to your servers in New York using SFTP. Because we don’t manage any of these, we have no control over their viability and cannot guarantee the durability of data stored on them.
Danger Zones in Cloud Storage
Although cloud storage is safe data storage, there are still some weaknesses that malicious users can exploit to access your data.
Misconfiguration
Human errors are common and can lead to severe issues. Any misconfiguration in the cloud platform can expose your data, making it vulnerable. An incorrect permission creation will result in your data falling into the wrong hands.
Provide proper training to the staff who are to be involved in such roles, and conduct regular audits to avoid such issues. Additionally, go for automated configuration to reduce human errors as much as possible.
Internal Menaces
Your data may be at risk not because of external cyber attacks but because of an internal malicious user. An insider can abuse his access privileges and alter the configurations. To avoid such an event, ensure sound and extensive access control.
Data Breaches
Cybercriminals use multiple methods to access data unlawfully. Every successful attempt is a breach. Phishing and malware are two ways to achieve this process. SQL injection or brute force attacks are another set of common attacks.
Ensure that no one clicks on unknown links or fills out forms from suspicious senders. Employees should also refrain from responding to spam emails or visiting suspicious websites.
DDoS Attacks
DDoS is a typical attack that cybercriminals can perform. It involves sending massive traffic or requests to the server to choke it down. Multiple requests from an application will make the CPU unable to handle them.
You should ensure your applications cannot send requests beyond a specific threshold within a defined time. Be sure to check your system and test its resilience.
Why Cloud Storage is Safe Overall?
Even though cloud storage services have some drawbacks, they are a good option for numerous reasons. Let’s learn about the major ones.
Security Experts
Cloud storage is constantly under protection by a specialist with security as their primary focus daily. Employing them for security services, they understand all about networks, firewalls, cyberspace, access controls, data security, response to malicious activities, threats, handling incidents, weakness identification, and security structures, making cloud storage safe.
With such professionals working for the cloud storage service provider, you are in good hands as your data is safe to the maximum extent possible.
Data Recovery
You can still recover your data if an employee accidentally deletes, overwrites, or amends it. Data recovery is also an attractive feature of cloud storage, where you can instantly get your data back because of minimum data loss risk.
You do not have to take disaster recovery measures and won’t have to make plans and strategies because the cloud storage providers will do all that for you.
To avoid permanent data loss, they often use the principle of redundancy, where they store your data in multiple storage locations to make it possible to recover it. However, you may have a time window to recover your data.
Integrated Defence Mechanism
Any company storing data on on-premise data centres must devise robust defence systems against cyber threats, ransomware, and viruses.
Creating a defence strategy alone is a continuous operation that requires constant auditing and knowledge of new ways to breach the system. However, because the cloud storage providers have already taken such measures, the users can have peace of mind, making the cloud secure.
Sound Encryption
Sound encryption changes your data into a secret code, making reading impossible without the correct key. To read the data, one must convert it back into the original form with the help of the key.
If someone malicious has access to your data with malicious intent, they cannot use it if strong encryption safeguards your data. Encryption is a crucial component of cloud storage platforms, and it ensures safe online storage.
Legal Compliance
Cloud storage providers implement various measures to ensure compliance with globally recognised security standards and regulations. These measures are to meet stringent industry requirements and protect data from unauthorised access, breaches, and other security threats.
Many cloud storage providers obtain certifications and adhere to standards such as the ISO. Compliance often involves implementing robust encryption methods, access controls, and regular security assessments to safeguard data at rest and in transit.
By adhering to these security compliance measures, cloud storage providers ensure that the data remains secure and protected in line with industry standards.
Cloud Storage Safety Guidelines
Reputation
Before proceeding with any cloud storage service provider, shortlist a few and read what the users say about them. Gather all the reviews and perform sentiment analysis to determine the safest and best option. You can ask people or search on the internet regarding the reputation of those options.
Trainings
Training helps educate people about network and data security. Regular training sessions will give employees a basic understanding of how attackers find vulnerabilities and some famous attacking methods. The training should focus on how to be safe from phishing attacks, viruses, ransomware, and other threats.
Inform the staff on what to do if they witness an attack or accidentally delete a file. Guide them on how to use two-factor authentication.
Conclusion
Cloud storage is a popular and well-accepted storage option for many businesses. It eliminates the hassle of maintaining data and the difficulties of making a strategy to protect it, conducting regular security audits, checking for vulnerabilities, and integrating defence mechanisms against ransomware and viruses.