Regardless whether you are an ordinary everyday private cloud user or you supervise a large company, knowing how to deal with threats and risks on the cloud is a must these days. While many people thought that a portable storage device, such as a USB flash, was the end-of-the-time tool, today you can access your data from any point of the world, given that you have the Internet connection. However, nothing can always be perfect. Just as the USB memory-sticks were (and still are) often infected by malware and viruses, the cloud is also not virus-proof. Because of that, every cloud user needs to take some steps to keep the virtual pests away from his or her documents.
Your personal online policy
Every business needs clear policies and achievable goals. By establishing these features I the real world, every CEO ensures the success of the business. The same goes for the online environment. You need to know who deals with your data both in your business and in the company that provides you with the cloud service. Always have an insight into the terms and conditions under which you sign a contract. Even if you are not that informed on types of online policies, you need to get advice from experts, but from independent ones.
Restricted access
Even before your data is online, it must be clear who can access it freely and who should have restricted access. Not only that you should know has who exactly from the cloud providing company has a license to see your data on the cloud, but you should also impose some restrictions on the members of your staff. There should be a role of a secretary, who is in charge of all the data on the cloud. Other employees do not have to deal with that part of the business. What is more, they will work in a more relaxed way and will not be under any kind of unnecessary pressure.
Educate yourself
The whole process of uploading your data online and turning to the virtual space in order to expand and further develop your business must be well-planned. It is not only your data, but you should also learn more and educated yourself in terms of web hosting and how the Internet works in general. The more you know, the weaker is the chance that you are going to get swindled.
Old-school protection
Cloud service providers have certain protocols and crypts by which they assure that their clients and their belonging data are fully protected. However, you should be blatant enough and inquire about their methods. Every educated Internet-advisor will tell you that some old-school protection features, such as antimalware, firewalls and antivirus programs still have their role in keeping the virtual server and the data on the cloud safe.
In addition to these features, you need to make a clear arrangement about the data after the cloud service contract expires. It is vital that the provider has the obligation of returning all the data, which should under no circumstances be used by them after the expiration.
Author’s bio: Dan Radak is VPS security and Hosting generaly specialist. Currently employed as a consultant in couple of Web Hosting companies. In his free time he likes traveling and fishing, also he is interested in landscape architecture.