Your business’s data is one of its most precious assets. Without it, your organization can’t run properly. And without proper protection, you can lose sensitive information, client trust, precious funds, and your positive reputation to hackers.
Proper protection is key to managing your data, especially when it’s stored in a public cloud. Let’s take a look at how public cloud services work and what you can do to make sure your information stays safe.
What Are Public Cloud Services?
If you use public cloud services, it means your cloud is accessed via the internet and managed by a third party, who offers the same infrastructure to multiple clients. This differs from the private cloud, which is hosted on a private network. Public services generally include remote access to storage, applications, and platforms, facilitating scalability and cost-efficiency.
However, the public cloud also presents significant data privacy concerns, as sensitive information is often stored off-site and may be vulnerable to unauthorized access or breaches. Implementing robust security measures and closely evaluating the data privacy policies of your cloud providers is necessary to protect your organization’s information.
How Can I Make My Cloud Storage More Secure?
You can enjoy the convenience and possibilities of public cloud services while still staying safe with these techniques.
Choose Reliable Third Parties
An important first step in cloud security is choosing the right provider. Make sure a cloud provider uses security measures like encryption and access controls and follows all security regulations before storing your data with them.
Partnering with a trustworthy IT team is also key for making the most of public cloud services. Professional IT techs have the experience and knowledge to help you implement necessary security measures and protect your data within the cloud.
Back Up Data Often
The virtual nature of the cloud makes backup procedures essential for data security. Storing copies of data to secure locations and devices protects your information from breaches, ransomware, accidental deletions, or outages.
Install Antivirus Software
Antivirus software provides real-time protection against malware, viruses, and other cyber threats that can compromise sensitive data by consistently scanning and monitoring both local devices and cloud accounts.
Encrypt Information
Encrypting information before uploading it to cloud storage is an essential step in safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access. With thorough encryption protocols, your data will be unreadable even if it is intercepted.
Control Access
Access controls are essential for managing public cloud services. Give each employee access to only the information they need to do their work. Consider policies like multi-factor authentication and zero-trust to confirm that only the right people are viewing and manipulating data.
Monitor Usage
Don’t stay in the dark about what’s going on in your systems. Implement network and cloud monitoring services to keep track of who is accessing data and hire a trusted IT company to perform regular security audits.
Make a Plan
The goal of cloud security is to prevent breaches, but there is always still a chance of an attack. Take a proactive approach by creating incident response and business continuity plans (IRPs and BCPs) so you and your team will know how to respond to and recover from data loss quickly and effectively.
Educate Employees
Even the best security measures will be insufficient if team members don’t take simple safety measures: It’s estimated that anywhere from 88–95% of data breaches are due to human error.¹
Make your company part of the solution by holding frequent cybersecurity trainings to teach best practices, including proper password management, signing out of accounts, accessing company info on secure devices, avoiding suspicious links, etc.
Keep Your Data Private in the Public Cloud With Brightline IT
At Brightline IT, we know how important your data is. Our experience working with public cloud services allows us to provide expert, personalized advice on how you can best protect your information in the cloud. We’re dedicated to helping you understand your tech and using it to make your business stronger for the future. For more secure data, just call Brightline IT.
