When you are storing data using a cloud service, no matter what kind of data or cloud service, your number one priority should be the security and safety of this data.
Maintaining an effective security solution is essential for protecting your data from potential cyber-attacks or security breaches. It’s well known that any vulnerability in cloud security makes an easy target for hackers who want to access that data.
If you are storing unusually large amounts of data on a public or private cloud network, you will want to ensure that you are employing an effective and up-to-date method of securing your data.
1. Monitor Your Cloud Usage
Before you can start implementing a security system, you must first be aware of all the areas within your cloud that need protection and how your cloud network operates normally.
You should monitor who is accessing your data and when they are accessing it. This way, if there are any abnormalities in the usage of your data, you will know from the usage patterns.
You should assess the permission roles on individual files and folders to ensure that only those with the correct permissions are able to access your most sensitive data.
A simple method to analyze this kind of behavior is to look into behavior analytics. View how your cloud data is being used and whether you need to rectify this; this technique will reveal if you have any employees who need extra training on the subject of cloud data security or if you have any potential cyber-attacks who are using your data suspiciously or maliciously.
2. Employ a Data Protection Strategy
Individual protections for your data can be effective, but to provide a long-term and continuously effective method of protecting your data, it is well advised that you employ a researched and thought out data protection strategy that is tailored to your business’s specific needs and data usage.
Data protection techniques can work well together and will provide you with a bigger picture of your cloud security and a more well-rounded sphere of protection for your network.
The combination of EDR, honeypot, behavior analytics, firewalls and other solutions from mcafee.com is much more effective than the usage of a singular one of these tactics.
3. Prevent Attacks Before They Happen
Preventing a security breach or cyber-attack using threat detection methods is the best course of action to deter these types of attackers. Threat intelligence is a great resource and technique which will use the information of previous attacks to inform whether your cloud security is at risk.
Prevention also means educating your employees about the dangers of a data breach. To ensure that your data is only accessed by employees who are trained in cyber security, be sure to implement two-factor authentication to your most sensitive files.
4. Quarantine Infected Data
If a breach manages to bypass your security strategy, you must act with speed and remove any comprised files and data from your storage. Make sure that you perform regular malware scans and remove any data that is infected to avoid it replicating when your data syncs.
Cloud security can be achieved if you implement these steps into your security regime!
