Know the Risks

Organizations of all sizes have been looking for a solution to constant cybersecurity threats in the form of data thefts, computer hackers and ransomware. With the advent of Cloud and Cloud Computing Services, most experts believed that this could be the answer to all cybersecurity problems for companies. However, Cloud also is susceptible to cyber-crimes, the earlier the organizations understand this fact, the better it is for them.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a cyber-attack on a system of computers encrypting all its data. A ransom amount is asked for in return of the original data form to be given back. Even if one pays for the ransom, however, no one can guarantee that the perpetrators will stick to their promise and restore the system. On the other hand, the next generation of hackers will simply disrupt the entire system attacking thousands of computers at a time with no tangible motive or solution to the fiasco. Overall any cybersecurity breach is an expensive affair ranging from thousands to millions of dollars in loss.

Get Secure

For companies who have moved to Cloud Computing and Cloud Computing Software, on average, only a third of their sensitive data is getting into the Cloud. This fact is alarming especially when more than half of the companies according to Ponemon Institute survey do not have any formal or informal security plan in place. In case of any emergency cyber threat, most cloud-based organizations absolutely have no tackle system in place.

Your IT consultant and a team should be aware of these threats and plan the contingencies accordingly.

Here are several factors to consider for an effective plan:

• Designed along with your organizational core IT team, there should be a contingency plan for an emergency “hacked” situation. This plan will comprise of the immediate to-do list in case of an attempted or successful cloud security breach scenario. Or else, panic situation might bring your worst fears alive.
• Hacking can even take place by acquiring data while transmission if it is not encrypted well.
• Code-cracking algorithm and tactics to acquire passwords can result in access to the cloud. In this case, multi-step login can be effective to a large extent.
• Secure your on-premise systems as they too can be sources of cloud security breach activities.
• Your cloud specialist team can help you select a cloud service provider with a strong inbuilt backup system to keep everything going even in case of emergency by restoring all the data with the help of a few clicks.
• Data centers too have to be geographically distributed with enough redundancies and a strong surveillance system.
• Distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection and fraudulent login rejection is provided by some of the best service providers and can help to combat cloud insurgency to a large extent.
• Identity, access, strict SSL transfer and log management has to be extended by the cloud service provider in order to be alerted or secure the system.
• In case Cloud data comes in contact with fraudulent data being uploaded from any particular connected system, encryption of the rest of the data too is possible, this can be prevented by the same backup feature if the entire cloud has a backup.
• Backup data also has to be encrypted well enough for it to be secure

Take Action

Choosing the right Cloud Service Provider and asking the right questions can be pre-emptive to a bigger impending problem. Third-party cloud security solutions can also be explored. The first step, however, is to be aware of the issue.

Call 484-892-5713 or Contact Us today to learn more about how to secure your data cloud from hackers.