Cloud Source

How to Effectively Secure Data

by

DataIn today’s vulnerable security landscape, data protection is of paramount importance. Organizations must strive to effectively secure both incoming and outgoing data. No truer is this than with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which offers additional security for encrypted technologies and firewalls. As a form of legislation for mainly European entities, GDPR is designed to protect all forms of data for worldwide companies and private citizens.

The GDPR interface is now being adopted by North American markets as well. In fact, businesses that span several industries are taking security measures to ensure optimal protection for clients and employees. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Integrating GDPR security guidelines for all business data access, transfer, and communications
  • Securing formidable defenses that protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for customers and staff
  • Enhancing existing security infrastructure to comply with all GDPR rules and guidelines
  • Ensuring good security hygiene for all business verticals
  • Seamlessly blending new security protocols to enhance existing ones

While GDPR is relatively new, it has resulted in timely and efficient results for a number of organizations. However, this form of security legislation can only succeed if the suggestions below are followed by global companies.

Changing the Business Mindset

Organizations must start thinking about information security in the following ways:

  • As an element that is crucial in enabling daily business protocols and communications
  • As a pivotal and vital part of risk management that enables businesses to secure a competitive edge and protect their brand validity and professionalism
  • As an essential tool in protecting even the most discreet and confidential client and business data across all access points
  • As a technology that is easily integrated with cloud, hardware, software, and communications applications for everyday business

Consistent Security Procedures

GDPR also stresses the importance of being consistent with all security measures, including the ability of staff members to view daily business from a security standpoint. They must have a clear view of how business activity can impact security as a whole. While it may take some time to find the right blend of sound security procedures, GDPR offers a wealth of techniques that have so far had a positive and profound impact on companies of all sizes.

Security First, Business Second

Without adequate and sound data protection, it’s next to impossible to conduct normal business. With this in mind, organizations need to understand the importance of security first, business second. Cultivating an environment of security is not only relegated to IT departments. All employees should play a part in identifying and addressing potential risks on a day-to-day basis. This can include malware and viruses, along with potential vulnerabilities with applications and data protection. It will ultimately be up to organizations how they want to introduce and implement new data security measures.

Cloud Security: Identifying and Protecting Against Vulnerabilities

by

Cloud SecurityThere are many advantages to the cloud, including the ability to scale computing, deployment, and storage no matter what the size of the business. However, cloud security is still an important topic for businesses and their IT professionals, both in identifying vulnerabilities and protecting against them.

Security Vulnerabilities

Securing the cloud is in many ways exactly like securing traditional data centers. This means that businesses should be actively searching for any vulnerabilities, as well as ensuring that their authentication processes are up to date and comprehensive.

There is, however, one feature of the cloud that isn’t present in traditional data centers: the cloud is shared by every organization using that provider. Because of this, a compromise in one business’s system can affect every other business in that cloud. According to the non-profit Cloud Security Alliance, businesses should be using encryption and multifactor authentication, as well as considering:

  • API vulnerabilities
  • Compliance requirements and SLAs
  • Insider threats
  • Multitenancy
  • Physical security

API Vulnerabilities

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are a widespread and convenient way to share data between companies, but they also come with their own vulnerabilities. The biggest threat with an API is that there could be a flaw much further down the line, at a spot where the business is unable to control it.

Fortunately, there are still security measures that businesses can take in order to protect themselves if a threat does come up the line: a combination of authentication, authorization, and identification measures that ensures control over who can access what, and what they can do with it.

Compliance and SLAs

Reading and understanding the SLA is important for all businesses, especially those in regulated industries such as healthcare and banking. The SLA comes into play when choosing a vendor; the business should ensure that their chosen vendor will adhere to all compliance requirements and should also know their own level of responsibility. This often depends on the type of service — IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS — and is especially important for organizations that need to follow mandates like HIPAA or PCI-DSS. Businesses can accomplish their due diligence by using audit trails, continuity services, record keeping, and recovery services.

Insider Threats

Insider threats aren’t necessarily malicious, but can also come from users who don’t have the correct training or knowledge base. In order to maintain integrity and cloud security, businesses must ensure that their data is encrypted, that they have their own auditing and logging systems, and that the vendor they choose has properly trained and knowledgeable workers.

Multitenancy

The cloud allows near-infinite space for data storage, but it also means that one business’s data is often stored beside the data from many other organizations. Businesses can make the choice to use a customizable dedicated server if the vendor offers that option, but for those who can’t, the answer is to apply and maintain active, aggressive security measures.

Physical Security

While the cloud isn’t a physical storage space, there is still a physical component to it in the data servers that the vendor maintains. Businesses no longer have physical access to the servers and instead need to ensure that the vendor they choose has proper security measures in place, such as access reviews, biometric locks, and video surveillance.

Cloud security is the responsibility of both the business and the service provider, but businesses can help improve the safety of their data by choosing the right vendor with the right SLA, as well as applying stringent security measures on their own end.

Unified Communications: Using a Single Vendor for both UCaaS and Internet

by

Unified CommunicationsIn order to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced and technology-based world, businesses need to be efficient and productive. One way to achieve this is through unified communications, so that all tools and platforms are connected — which can save businesses hundreds of thousands a year.

There are two ways to unify communications: outsourcing to a vendor (UCaaS) or through an on-premise solution. Businesses looking to purchase UCaaS from a vendor should be aware of the risks of using different vendors for UCaaS and internet versus a single vendor for both.

Business Continuity

Losing data, whether through cyber criminals, a natural disaster, or an employee misplacing a device, can cripple a business. A regular internet provider doesn’t always offer backups or geographic redundancy, whereas a single dedicated vendor with a commitment to business continuity will. This also means that data can be restored within minutes, allowing the business to continue with barely a hiccup.

Customer Service

Regular internet providers may not have dedicated customer service reps for important tools like phones and internet connections, especially outside of regular business hours. A single vendor will be more likely to have live and knowledgeable customer service available no matter the time or day, ensuring efficient, quality help in the event of a problem.

Hardware

Mismatched hardware can cause issues both in setup and later down the road when troubleshooting problems. If choosing a multi-vendor network, the business will need to do the research to ensure that UCaaS transmissions are properly prioritized.

Outages

Internet uptime mostly relies on the type of connection a business has. Fiber optic cable is more reliable than copper, which can fail due to:

  • Equipment failures
  • Moisture
  • Severe weather
  • Temperature fluctuations

Vendors that provide both unified communications and internet connectivity are more likely to offer fiber optic cable lines, which will ensure that the business has access to the cloud — where data is stored — as well as phone lines and other tools of communication.

Quality

The biggest drawback of using a regular internet provider is that all business traffic will be competing with traffic from other customers, both large and small. During peak times, this can result in slow transmissions, delays, and sound quality issues on phone calls. Using a single dedicated vendor ensures business data is prioritized and resources are not being hogged in one direction or the other.

Security

Security is paramount in protecting sensitive data, but transmitting over a regular provider’s network can mean that cyber criminals have easier access — and copper cable is less secure than fiber. A single-vendor UCaaS solution means more focus on security as well as access to the information and reports that make risk analysis easier.

Troubleshooting

All technology requires troubleshooting occasionally. Having internet and UCaaS from separate vendors means first figuring out which one is having the issue, and then trying to find what the issue is and where it’s coming from. A single vendor means easier, faster troubleshooting so that any issue is solved as soon as possible.

Businesses with the capital to purchase unified communications and internet from a single vendor will benefit from improved efficiency and productivity while saving money. Data will be more secure, troubleshooting will be simpler, and businesses will have higher quality customer service and prioritized transmissions to ensure their communications are quick and steady.

BYOD in Government Agencies: Clear Policies Protect Critical Data

by

Bring your own device (BYOD) has the benefit of allowing businesses to cut costs on providing devices to employees, but it also creates a number of security issues. This is an especially important factor to consider for government agencies, which often handle very sensitive data but may not have a focused, detailed policy for employees to follow. Employees aren’t necessarily creating security holes on purpose, but agencies should still have a firm policy in place — or make the decision not to allow employees to bring their own devices at all.

Implementing a BYOD Program

If the decision is made to implement a BYOD program, there are a few basics to keep in mind:

  • Create clear policies that outline exactly how employees are allowed to use their devices for work-related data like email and documents
  • Only allow approved application stores, and ensure that employees know they cannot root or jailbreak their devices
  • Use software that allows for work data to be kept separate from personal data and ensures the work data can be easily removed

BYOD and Security

Both potential security problems and their solutions must be spelled out clearly in a BYOD policy. This is especially important for government agencies that need to strike a balance between keeping data safe and avoiding infringement on employee rights. This can involve:

  • Containerization
  • Connection via a secure third party
  • Lockout codes
  • Ensuring employees are up to date with security patches

Agencies should also keep in mind what sort of data they handle, including personal data like SSNs and data critical for infrastructure such as power grids. If the data is too sensitive, or could cause massive problems if it leaked, then it may not make sense to implement a BYOD policy at all.

Deciding Against a BYOD Policy

Even if the agency decides against allowing employees to bring their own devices, the agency should still ensure that all employees are aware of the restriction. Clarity is key to helping protect sensitive data; employees may not mean any harm by using their personal cell phone to check their email or look at a document, but the chance of a security breach is lessened if they know that they’re not allowed to do so.

Mobility is an ever-growing and ever-changing field. In order to keep up with the evolution of BYOD, agencies and businesses should be aware of where their sensitive data is and what it’s being used for. A policy that outlines exactly what is and isn’t allowed will keep all devices, whether personal or business, safe and secure.

Colocation: Factors to Consider When Renting Space in a Third-Party Data Center

by

Colocation, the practice of renting space from a third-party data center, has grown in popularity over the past few years. Businesses can rent a mix of hardware, services, and software. Market research firm IDC predicts that by 2018, companies will have 65% of their IT assets hosted off-site, and 33% of their IT staff will actually be third-party employees.

With colocation, businesses can switch to operating expense models instead of the more expensive capital expense budget. This is the main draw to renting space from third parties, but there are other things to consider when making the decision to rent, including:

  • Business continuity
  • Disaster recovery
  • Location
  • Pricing
  • Security

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Colo has no distinct advantage over an in-house solution when it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery, but it should still be an important consideration when choosing a colo provider. Wherever the colo center is, the provider should have a plan in place to ensure uninterrupted service and recovery in the event of a natural disaster, including frequent testing and tweaking to keep everything up to date.

Location

Because data will be hosted at least partly in a physical location, businesses must look at exactly where that location will be. It needs to be close enough to a power source and somewhere that IT staff can easily access, and it should also be somewhere that’s unlikely to be hit with natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes.

Pricing

Switching to colocation can help businesses save money through usage-based pricing. Colo can even help reduce electricity costs by up to 40%, according to the National Resources Defense Council. However, when looking for the right facility, be aware of any hidden costs and monthly fees. This can include bandwidth, hardware maintenance, and support services.

Security

Using colocation means that sensitive data may be hosted outside the organization, away from the security measures put in place to protect it in-house. Not only should the provider ensure that only authorized personnel can access the facility, but they should also have monitoring in place so that if there is a breach, they are alerted as soon as possible.

Switching to colo can be a big change for any business, but by considering these factors, businesses can have peace of mind and the assurance that they are reducing their budget and improving their efficiency.

Contact

328 S. Jefferson St. Suite 603
Chicago, IL 60661
Ph: 312.753.7880
E: info@CloudSourceServices.com

Newsletter Signup

Stay up-to-date on Cloud Source's news.

↑ Top of Page