What Everyone Should Know About Cloud Security
As each year passes, more businesses and individuals are turning toward the cloud to fulfil their document and information storage needs - but are your files safe? It seems like each month there is a new online scandal in which celebrities or corporations are being hung out to dry based on sensitive information that has been "stolen" from the cloud. If you worry about something like this happening to you, read ahead and make sure you know the basics about cloud security.
What Is the Cloud?
The cloud refers to a network of highly-specialised servers, each of which has a different function. By working together, they can form a vast repository for your online information, and often the cloud provides a safe, reliable and infallible storage solution. That said, it is not impervious to hacking, tampering or theft.
Is Onsite Safer Than Cloud Storage?
You may hear about malevolent off-site hackers who gleefully pull the most private information from the cloud and make it public and think to yourself "clearly my data centre on premises is safer." But is it really?
The answer is no - and here are the main reasons:
- First of all, just because your data is stored onsite does not mean it is safe from persistent hackers and viruses.
- Fire, flood and theft will damage or completely ruin onsite storage solutions, and if they are not backed up on a cloud or offsite hard drive your business can be set back devastatingly.
- Cloud storage can be protected with built-in security controls and transparent policies about how your information is stored - your onsite data centre may not offer these features.
- Cloud attacks and on-premises attacks are becoming more and more similar, and therefore the benefits that onsite storage could boast until recently are becoming fewer in number.
Cloud Attacks Are Increasing
The stats are surprising - cloud attacks are increasing on a monthly basis and the volume of attacks continues to grow. Vulnerability scanning, conducted by computer programs designed to scan computer systems, applications and software for vulnerable aspects that they can exploit and use to gain access to files, is on the rise. You need to be prepared.
Attackers Are Increasing in Viciousness and Tenacity
No matter where you are storing your precious and valuable information, it is vulnerable to attack - and the attackers will not give up after one unsuccessful attack. They will often attack again and again with new, automated hacker tools that are becoming more popular each month. No matter where you are storing your information, you need to be monitoring your IT environment 24 x 7.
Contact Us
Here at Pygmalion Solutions, we have been responsible for creating cloud-based security solutions for SMBs to enterprise-sized businesses.
Get in touch today for an initial discussion on +44 (0) 20 7751 8060 or email enquiries@pygmalion.com