The cloud has opened up tens of opportunities for organizations to streamline service delivery, enable collaborations, real-time information sharing, SaaS, and Paas, among other services. However, as companies move their data and applications to the cloud, most of them are worried about compliance and security. The rules that apply when securing the cloud are different from those of in-house systems, which makes it a little confusing. Here are some best practices to enhance cloud security.
Encrypt Your Data
Your data encryption should always cover everything. The data should interact with other servers while in the SSL transmission so that there are no leaks. Ensure that you terminate the SSL in the cloud provider’s network. Besides, you should enforce the encryption of data at rest, especially in cases where the data is sensitive. Encrypting data at rest is the way to meet compliance and regulatory requirements for managing sensitive data. Ensure that you use AES-256 encryption for the data and encrypt the keys with a set of master keys that are rotated after every while.
Add Some Protective Layers on Your Data at User Level
Your cloud provider should offer you a role-based access control structure. This allows you to give specific permissions to different users of the system. Depending on the work and need for manipulating the data, you should enforce strict access control on the data with a set of approvals for certain actions on the cloud. This allows you to track any changes in your data and enhance its privacy. It is also in line with various data security standards.
Consider MFA (Multi-factor Authentication)
In many cases, the traditional username and password are not sufficient to keep your data sage. The credentials may be stolen and used to access the cloud. However, with multi-factor authentication, there are two or more authentications so that you are sure that the person logging in is the one who is authorized to do it. It is easy to implement the MFA and is considered negligent in operating any cloud application without it.
Use Service Providers that Have Complied with Rigorous Certifications
By choosing a service provider certified with rigorous compliance certification, you are sure of your data’s security and privacy. One of these certifications is SOC 2, type 2. This is a security auditing procedure that ensures that your cloud service provider has taken all the important steps to protect your data and business interests. If you are working with credit card data and other sensitive personal information, pick a SaaS provider with PCI DSS certification. This security standard ensures that your data is secured and managed using quality protective policies.
Have Regular Cloud Security Audits
It is important to have regular security audits to determine the vulnerabilities in your cloud infrastructure. Pick a reputable cloud security Siem provider for monitoring, security policy implementation, and assistance in selection security solutions. Data disasters have brought down various companies in terms of the ensuing legal disputes, loss of critical data, credibility issues, and extended downtime. You can avoid all this by taking proactive measures to ensure cloud data security.
