As a business, you are not immune to online attacks. But, if you employ various strong and sophisticated tactics to ward off potential invaders, you will most likely deter such attempts and keep any possible damage to a minimum, and your business won’t suffer a big strike in such an event.

Though all businesses should be proactive about the security of their cloud storage provider, some circumstances increase your necessity to provide extra protective measures. These include:

• When you have employees that work remotely using laptops, personal computers, and mobile devices
• Frequent sharing of data and documents with external parties. These include clients, third-party providers, and other outside organizations
• The location of your data storage is unclear. If your cloud service provider stores your data in an offshore location, due to lax regulations, your data may be more vulnerable

Below are some of the recommended methods you can use to secure your data in the cloud.

1. Devise strong passwords

Many people these days understand that using “password” or other similar and obvious words to secure their computers is not a good idea. You need to implement strong password principles. This involves using several characters that include upper case and lower case characters, numbers, and special symbols. The password should also be at least ten characters long.

2. Provide limited access

Your staff members and other third-party cloud vendors should only have access to the data they require to do their job. So, discuss with your cloud service provider about the management of the encryption keys to ensure that access to your most sensitive data is limited to the right personnel at the right times.

3. Back up sensitive files

It is true that syncing and file sharing are effective methods of backing up files. But, this should not replace the use of external drives and devices. The practice of backing up files physically and virtually will help to ensure that you will have access to your data even in the event when your system is hacked or when it crashes.

4. Keep personal and corporate data separate

In the professional environment, this principle should be implemented, and the security of your data should be paramount. Whether your policies allow a “Bring Your Own Device” system or not, you need to communicate clearly to your staff about the kind of information that should or should not be stored on personal devices, and the type of encryption that is required.

5. Keep sensitive information out of the cloud

No cloud storage system is “bulletproof.” Thus, trade secrets and other types of confidential data should be stored somewhere else. Until cloud service providers can provide security levels that are comparable to what is available for internal business servers, it is not worth taking the risk.

The security of your data is of utmost importance because your business depends on it. Thus, ensure that you use strong passwords, provide limited access to sensitive information, back up your files, and avoid keeping extremely confidential and valuable information in the cloud.