Data Storage Solutions: How to Put a Lock on Your Cloud

Critics of cloud data storage have never been moderate in their criticism of its security vulnerabilities. Ever since the celebrity photo breach at Apple’s iCloud service, though, the criticism has become harsher. Having millions of people put all their data on one system could be an invitation to disaster.

Is It Time to Store Your Own Data Again?

It’s important to judge the cloud calmly before entertaining any thoughts of abandoning it: Is the cloud really less safe than data storage that you can have on your own premises?

The vast majority of small businesses are not equipped to keep their data safe. Businesses lose billions each year to simple hard-drive failure and laptop theft. At many small businesses, no one is placed in charge of ensuring timely backups and retrievals. Password security tends to be an issue, too. Employees get careless with their passwords, access business servers from insecure locations, leave their terminals switched on when unattended, and so on.

Businesses are even more vulnerable when it comes to security against hacking attempts. Not only are business owners often unclear about the technologies involved, they rarely have the time to devote to it. In comparison, popular cloud services use SafeNet cloud security; they have experts on board whose sole purpose in life is to take care of regular data backups, software and hardware protections, vulnerability patch-ups, technologies like high-security 2FA authentication, and frequent penetration testing. In other words, their security is far better than anything most small businesses could dream of.

You Shouldn’t Overestimate the Threat

Hackers hit retail businesses and banks so often that they have access to tens of millions of credit card numbers. Consumers who worry about whether their number has been stolen shouldn’t bother: they can be certain that it has. If hackers haven’t used their number yet, it’s only because they haven’t got around to it. The chance of an individual credit card being used by a hacker who has access to it is so small that banks don’t take the threat seriously. This is why they only send out new credit cards once every two years and not once every month.

This goes to show that there is greater security in putting your data on the cloud and not on your own servers. If someone hacks a cloud service provider’s servers, the chances of you personally getting hit are negligible. You’d be lost in the crowd.

Though the cloud does come with greater security threats, it also comes with better security and features. The bottom line is that on the cloud, you end up with more convenience and a similar level of security as always. However, it is always possible to improve the security of your cloud account.

How Do You Get Better Security?

The iCloud celebrity photo theft didn’t involve a hacker gaining entry into Apple’s servers. Instead, it involved phishing: hackers found out the passwords to the celebrities’ iCloud accounts by targeting them directly and individually with tricks and scams.

For the most part, concerns about the vulnerabilities of the cloud can be done away with if users are simply more careful:

Change your passwords at the right time: When people hear of a data breach at a major bank or other company that has their information, they rush to change their passwords. While changing passwords is a good idea, doing it right after a security breach isn’t enough. The hackers may still have access to the cloud company’s servers. It can be some time before a proper patch is created to lock the hackers out. For this reason, you need to change your password repeatedly over the week following the attack.

Understand what phishing is: Phishing is a technique used by criminals to get passwords from people not through hacking but rather through scamming the individual. They pose as people who work at the bank or the cloud company, send out official looking forms that ask for passwords, create convincing fake login pages to capture passwords and even make visits in person. It’s important to be on your guard.

If you can, enable two-factor verification: While Apple doesn’t offer two-factor verification for its cloud storage, many other companies do. Two-factor verification is safer because it requires two sign-in steps. First, you need to have a password to log in. Then, the company sends you a special one-time password on your phone, which you use to gain full access.

Keep your most sensitive data offline: Keeping your sensitive data on your computer instead of on the cloud doesn’t make it any safer. Your computer is even more vulnerable than the cloud companies’ servers. Rather, you need to put it on a computer or storage device that is never allowed to connect to the Internet.

Data Storage Solutions: How to Put a Lock on Your Cloud