The pandemic has solidified the cloud's indispensability in today’s business operations. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that implemented remote working arrangements have notably been relying heavily on various cloud solutions to maintain operations and connect a distributed workforce.
It's therefore worth emphasizing that because of its critical role in the business ecosystem, the cloud should be a priority in your cybersecurity strategy. A compromised cloud environment can halt operations, causing your SMB to suffer in more ways than one. Safeguard your data and secure business continuity by implementing the following cloud security measures:
Erasure coding
In layman’s terms, erasure coding (EC) is the equivalent of not putting all your eggs in one basket. It is a technique IT administrators use to distribute data among several locations or platforms in order to prevent hackers from retrieving enough information and rebuilding entire data sets. For instance, if a company uses five cloud systems, admins can split up 25 blocks evenly across these multiple platforms. A hacker will then need to gain access to all these clouds in order to retrieve comprehensible data, which is nearly impossible unless they have a file map and credentials to your entire cloud infrastructure.
In addition, EC works by adding to each data fragment a certain number of extra storage blocks that would enable users to still retrieve data even if some blocks are lost. So suppose an admin recodes every 10 blocks of data to include 8 extra blocks. If any of the 8 blocks gets lost during a cyberattack, your SMB can still retrieve data and continue operations.
Encryption
Cloud encryption management tools scramble readable data to make it incomprehensible to those who don’t have the decryption key, thus preventing unauthorized users from viewing or accessing confidential business information. So even if hackers are able to steal encrypted data from the cloud, they wouldn’t be able to read what they stole. This is why using strong encryption packages should be mandatory for any multi-cloud security strategy.
Keep your encryption keys safe by disclosing them only to chosen select admins to prevent insider attacks. Also, consider using unique encryption keys for every cloud platform you have. While doing so may make it more difficult to move data between cloud platforms, this strategy limits damage in case the encryption key of one of those platforms is leaked.
Standardized IT policies
Cloud security should play a critical role in your IT policies. The best practices in protecting data in the cloud should be taught to your employees during onboarding, and employees’ access rights to the cloud should be revoked when they exit the company. Overall, your policies should foster a culture of security that minimizes human-based risks.
Having standardized policies also makes it easier for your employees to follow, especially those that are applicable to certain circumstances such as when they are working from home or using personal devices. Without clear IT guidelines, it’s easy to misuse technology, abuse privilege, and compromise cybersecurity efforts.
Best-in-class cloud solutions
Cloud cybersecurity solutions like early threat detection systems, cloud access security brokers, and software-defined infrastructure are critical in strengthening your defenses, as these provide various layers of protection between external threats and the data in your cloud. However, not all of these are suitable to SMBs’ needs or within their operating budget.
Fortunately, business technology experts like XBASE Technologies can customize solutions to ensure that your most vulnerable assets in the cloud are well-protected. For instance, if you’re likely at risk of volumetric attacks, we can look into scrubbing solutions that will detect malicious traffic and prevent it from being delivered to your systems.
What’s more, XBASE can make prohibitively expensive cloud security technologies accessible to smaller enterprises. Our EXponentially Better™ cloud service offering, coupled with our robust cybersecurity services, is designed to provide your SMB with reliable and secure cloud solutions that will take your business to the next level. We also do routine checkups to ensure that your system’s defenses are still able to neutralize new or evolved threats.
Leverage cloud technologies without worrying about data security. Take the first step in bolstering your cloud security today — call us at 800-XBASE-03 (922-7303) or drop us a line.