You know what the cloud is, right? That’s the vague place where everyone backs up their important data.
You know, “oh, that’s in the cloud.”
How much do you know about cloud security? We’ve blogged about cloud security issues in the past, but this is a good time to take a close look at the basics.
Basic cloud security refers to the measures and strategies used to protect data and applications stored in cloud computing environments from cybersecurity threats and unauthorized access.
It involves a combination of technical solutions, policies, and procedures designed to secure cloud resources against risks such as data breaches, theft, data loss, and cyber attacks.
Some basic cloud security measures include:
Implementing strong authentication and access controls to limit access to cloud resources only to authorized users.
Authentication is any process employed to verify the identity of a user who wishes to access the system. Because access control is typically based on the identity of the user who requests access to a resource, authentication is essential to effective security.
Encrypting data in-transit and at-rest to prevent interception and unauthorized access.
Data encryption is a security method where information is encoded and can only be accessed or decrypted by a user with the correct encryption key.
Regularly monitoring cloud systems for security incidents and anomalies, as well as implementing automated threat detection and response mechanisms.
A variety of monitoring tools can be implemented to watch for any problems with your cloud.
Keeping software and firmware patched and up-to-date to protect against known vulnerabilities.
Software vendors regularly publish patches and fixes designed to resolve functionality issues, improve security or add new features. Have procedures in place to check out and apply these updates as they are released.
Following best practices for data backup and recovery, and having an incident response plan in place in case of a security breach.
You can always follow the 3-2-1 rule for backup and recovery, which is recommended by NIST. And you should absolutely have a written incident response plan in place to help your organization before, during, and after a confirmed or suspected security incident.
These are obviously the very basics of cloud security. Want to learn more? Need help implementing and maintaining cloud security? Just contact us for help.
About the author
Scott Perkins is a Cloud Architect with LRS IT Solutions. He's been with LRS for 10 years and has experience in many areas of computer technology and networking.