A Guide to Implementing the Best Cloud Security Practices for Your Business

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We all know that keeping your business’ data secure is a top priority, but it’s easy to let the details of security slip through the cracks. Whether you’re using the cloud or not, here are some simple steps you can take to protect your company from cyber threats:

Only Use Cloud Services From Established Providers

Cloud security is a critical component of any organization’s overall security strategy. It’s about more than just protecting data: cloud security is your organization’s reputation and brand. And it’s about protecting from cyber threats—which are on the rise and increasingly sophisticated, as evidenced by recent high-profile data breaches at places like Equifax, Marriott International Inc., and Under Armour Inc.

In addition to mitigating risks and helping your business discover and respond to threats in real-time, cloud security can also help you avoid costly fines for noncompliance with industry regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA/HITECH, by keeping customer data safe. Hence, it is vital to pick a reputed cloud service provider. The best ones are the public cloud services offered by Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

When choosing a cloud provider, you need to be sure that the service you’re using has a proven security record. This can mean many things:

• The company should have an established reputation as a provider of secure and reliable services.
• The company should have been in business for several years since this indicates that it’s likely to be around for the long haul and won’t go out of business any time soon.
• Any complaints against the company regarding security issues or lack thereof should be investigated carefully before deciding.

Encrypt Data in Transit and at Rest

The key to encrypting data is knowing what you need to protect and implementing the right level of security at every stage. This includes protecting data while it is in transit and when it’s stored on your server or in the cloud.

The use of encryption has become a standard practice for businesses because it’s an effective way to protect sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. Encryption scrambles data so only authorized parties can access and make sense of its contents.

Educate and Train Your Employees

One of the essential steps in securing your cloud resources is to educate and train your employees. This will help them understand the importance of using strong passwords, multifactor authentication, VPNs, firewalls, and limiting administrator privileges. The thing is that human error is the biggest threat in the cybersecurity landscape, creating a wide gap for cyberattackers. Training your employees can minimize this gap.

You can seek professional security awareness training services for this. These service providers can help educate your employees and offer consultation for creating and implementing security best practices. The security awareness training will make your employees aware of the cyberthreat landscape and guide them to follow best practices, identify threats, and respond to them.

Segment Your Network

Segmentation is a way to help protect your network, and it can also help you protect your business. Segmentation means that if an attacker finds a way into one part of the network, they won’t be able to access other parts. The idea is that if someone gets through the first line of defense and gains access to resources or data on a server, they won’t have access to other servers. This creates multiple lines of defense before the adversary gets all the information across your network.

Use Multifactor Authentication for All Access to the Cloud

Multifactor authentication is a best practice for any cloud service. If a hacker could get past one barrier, they would still need to get through another.

Multifactor authentication includes multiple factors of identification, such as:

• Something you know (such as a password or passphrase)
• Something you have (such as an ATM card or smartphone)
• Something you are (fingerprint scan)

For example, when signing in to your account on Amazon Web Services (AWS), you need to provide your username and password, plus something that AWS knows about your device’s IP address.

Use a Firewall to Protect Cloud Resources

A firewall is a device that allows you to control network access. It’s usually a hardware or software component that sits between your network and the rest of the internet, allowing some traffic to pass through it and blocking other traffic.

A firewall can protect your cloud services from both internal users as well as external attackers. Internal users are those who have been given access to one or more of your cloud resources; external attackers are people who don’t have any legitimate business accessing any of them.

Firewalls can also protect an attacker from themselves by monitoring their activity and alerting you when they try something malicious. If someone tries to log in from an unrecognized device, for example, this could indicate a hack attempt on your system—and if they try too many times without success? That would be another red flag that indicates attempted intrusion into your system’s security measures.

Use a Virtual Private Network When Accessing the Cloud Remotely

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a good choice when you need to access cloud resources remotely. A VPN provides a secure connection to your cloud resources, enabling you to use them anywhere. VPNs are beneficial if you can access your cloud resources over public networks such as Wi-Fi hotspots. There’s no guarantee of security, and hackers can easily gain entry into sensitive information stored in the cloud.

Leverage the Visibility and Control That Public Clouds Offer

The spending and investments in the public cloud are constantly rising, and there’s a good reason. You can expect to get a lot of visibility and control from public clouds. This is because such clouds are designed for use by multiple customers, and thus their security practices are independently audited.

The most common approach to protecting public cloud resources is through firewalls and other security controls, but you might also want to consider encryption and access control lists (ACLs).

Limit Administrator Privileges by Using Predefined Roles

Limiting the privileges of administrators is a great way to reduce your risk. A best practice is using role-based access control (RBAC) and predefined roles to limit administrator privileges.

RBAC allows you to manage permissions based on what a person does, not who they are. It’s an effective way to reduce administrative overhead because it lets you assign different tasks or responsibilities in your organization and provides granular levels of access to those tasks or responsibilities instead of giving everyone full administrator privileges.

Conclusion

With so many threats to your business’s cloud-based systems, you must take the time to implement proper security measures. The key is ensuring that your cloud provider has the right level of security and complies with industry standards so that you can rest assured knowing your data is safe in its hands.

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