Today, businesses are steadily shifting their operations to the cloud. If you want safe and successful cloud operations, it’s crucial to keep the cloud environment secure at all times. Companies are eager to adopt cloud solutions, but security remains a significant factor that prevents them from fully integrating the cloud into their operations.

Even if your business has already adopted the cloud, security should always be the priority at all times. As technologies continue to improve, you need to find ways to improve cloud security practices to ensure smooth and hassle-free operations. If you want to learn how to integrate the cloud in your business processes, checking out sites by reliable providers such as https://www.buchanan.com/managed-cloud-services/ and other companies like it would be a good starting point.

Generally, cloud security must be a multi-layered approach—integrating security tools and regulations your employees need to follow strictly. Here are several ways to improve cloud security for your business.

1. Encryption of Data

When your business is operating on the cloud, anyone can readily access the data, which is one reason why you need to keep data secure at all times. All offices and endpoints should be both digitally and physically secure. Any person with a flash drive can compromise data security if you don’t observe strict security protocols. You can use tools like Adaptiva to keep your endpoint secure.

All data on the cloud must be encrypted to prevent suspicious elements from intercepting it, especially highly sensitive information. The encryption will protect the data by limiting access to anyone without proper authorization. The majority of cloud providers typically include data encryption tools or features, but you also have the option to check out what third-party vendors have to offer.

2. Get Data Backup and Recovery

Potential security threats to your cloud system might involve the destruction of data or making them purposeless via corruption. When this occurs, it can be a debilitating blow to your business.

A security breach can put all the crucial data of your business at risk of being deleted. One way to prevent this issue is to get data backup and recovery features to mitigate any potential security breach. Depending on your cloud provider, you might receive regular backups, but it’s best to back up your data manually. With this approach, you’ll know you have backups at all times and can readily access them.

3. Regularly Monitor the Cloud Environment

Regardless of your business type, it’s crucial to understand how cloud operations work thoroughly. It’s essential to regularly monitor the cloud environment to pinpoint speed, performance, and security factors.

When monitoring security, pay close attention to the activities of the users and access logs. Both will provide you with a perspective on what the users are working on and looking for. These can help pinpoint issues of concern for your security team.

4. Proper Use of The Cloud System

Aside from having the right tools, proper use of the cloud is crucial, especially when your employees have access to some data. Make sure your employees will not pose a security risk.

When your employees transfer data to and from the cloud, it might compromise the system if the devices they’re using aren’t secure and safe. One of the ways to maintain cloud security is to provide training to employees on how to operate the cloud system properly. Incorrect use of the cloud can result in poor productivity and increase the risk of a security breach. It is best to limit the use and approval of authorized devices as well.

5. Provide Training on Anti-Phishing

In any company, your employees are one of the threats to your cloud security, but not in a direct manner. Today, hackers utilize the phishing method to access your data on cloud storage, and you’re not even aware it’s already taking place. With this in mind, you should provide your employees with anti-phishing training regularly.

When your employees have the right training, they can readily spot phishing scams and avoid them. Make sure the training is continuous to ensure new and old employees will know the telltale signs. Proper training involves a series of consistent sessions since hackers will also create new types and styles of phishing scams.

6. Improve Password Security

Improving passwords is a simple measure to boost cloud security. One way to improve password security is to introduce multi-factor authentication. Today, you can find a variety of multi-factor authentication options to choose from. A good example is a password followed by the first digits of your company ID number.

An alternative is using passphrases or a sequence of words in a specific order to gain access. Passphrases are harder to guess or crack, which makes them a better option to improve security.

7. Protect User Identity and Metadata

A security breach on the cloud might be due to negligence. Make it a priority to protect the identity of your employees, especially high-level members who have access to essential data.

The metadata of your business might also pose a security risk. Sadly, the majority of companies and cloud service providers (CSPs) tend to overlook metadata security. An issue of concern among CSPs is that they keep all metadata in a central location. Hackers can readily gain access to all the metadata with a single security breach. It might be best to distribute the metadata in separate areas.

8. Integrate an Off-Boarding Process

When your employees leave the company, it’s crucial to cut down their access to the storage system or any company platform since it’ll later put your business’s security at risk.

You should revoke all access to data, including the cloud system. Remember that it’s a preventive measure since you’ll never know whether your former employees might sell data to the wrong parties.

A comprehensive off-boarding process is worth considering to prevent former employees from gaining access to your system.

9. Manage the Accessibility Of Users

Implement a level of authorization to protect important company data. Not all employees should access specific applications or documents. With this in mind, you should establish access rights to prevent unwanted entry or manipulation of data.

When you don’t have an authorization level for your employees, it will negatively affect your cloud security. A phishing attempt on a low-level employee will allow a hacker access to your company’s critical data. So, better be careful and err on the side of caution.

10. Work with A Reliable Saas Provider

If you’re working with a SaaS provider, you’ll gain an extra level of security for your data on the cloud. Sadly, if you’re not careful in choosing a reliable one, it can endanger your cloud security.

Try to avoid SaaS providers that generate encryption keys in unencrypted servers. That’s because it will be easier for hackers to access unencrypted servers than encrypted ones. With this in mind, be meticulous when selecting a SaaS provider to hire.

Additionally, don’t allow your SaaS provider to handle your keys since that could be another security risk. Remember that you’ll lose control over your data security if you enable the provider to manage your encryption keys.

Conclusion

If you want to ensure the best cloud security for your business, these measures will help you get started in fortifying the security of your data and applications in the cloud. Along with your cloud service provider, always take the necessary safety precautions to keep your business safe from potential security threats.