Category: Quality Assurance Testing

The Basics of Cloud Storage

Businesses nowadays are highly dependent upon security since the creation of the cloud. There is just too much traffic that could easily overtake your work and establish it as your own. To repel such atrocity, secure cloud services were built to protect the data by encrypting it.

Certain researchers claim the following reasons for cloud security leakage:

1. 50% of improper interfaces.
2. 55% of unauthorized access.
3. 62% of cloud systems are improperly configured.

How to leverage security in cloud data storage has become one of the top concerns for a major company to restrict any unauthorized data access and data misconfiguration. The idea is to store data on a cloud server that has access to all your information, data and backups which can only be accessed by the company officials. Below are some points indicating the importance of secure cloud services and ways to improve them.

Importance of Cloud Security

Cloud technology is thriving nowadays in major multi-national companies. 90% of US Enterprises use cloud storage and more than half of Small and Medium Businesses are implementing them in their daily affairs. It is handy because of the independence of human errors and the negligence of hiring IT staff, avoiding servers and other things.

Reasons to Practice Cloud Security:

1. To Avoid Security Compromise

There have been multiple cyber catastrophes in the past where the security has been breached and LinkedIn is a prime example of it. Nearly 6.7 million of data had been breached including iCLoud, Ashley Madison, and Sony Pictures.
The news media would never cover the story of how secure the cloud storage of a company is but the moment it is breached, they are always up for their headline stories. Hence, it is essentially important for a company to prepare secure cloud storage for the betterment of the company itself.

2. To Assign Security Level Roles Properly

It is quite easy for someone in the company to access this data proficiently. But it is equally imperative for the business to assign specific bits of information to certain people only. In essence, there must be a threshold designation for the employees who can access the fixed amount of information and who cannot access at all. While the other data must be accessible to only certain select authorities in the company who have a higher designation or who can be more trustworthy and visionary. The establishment of an SLA must be there to secure the cloud services from all kinds of perils. Sensitive data encryption must be practiced as well.

3. To Get Aware of Data Storage Location

The company must be aware of the location of the data stored and whether it is separated from other data or not regardless of the impact of the company in the industry.
Restrictions on cloud data storage are related to different countries. In the U.S. the company individual can access any data stored in the cloud while in certain European countries cloud data is highly confidential and only some officials from the company have access to it.

4. To Avoid Inadequate Cloud Security Systems

Due to the inadequacy of cloud security systems, organizations often find themselves in the predicament of leakage of data and subverting business reputation. To avoid something like this, it is important for the organization to call in the CASB enforcement solutions that can be easy to use and customize according to the company’s desires.

5. To Avoid Shared Technical Threats

The scheme of iCloud to provide the sharable applications and accessibility to consent can be a rudimentary concept. This is because the multi-customer or multi-tenant structure can result in perils concerning shared technology which can be exploited by many hackers in very malicious ways.

6. To Avoid Reckless Security Responsibility

The ideal myth in any company is that the cloud storage is already secured and no further efforts are required for the firm to protect them at all. The myth buster over here is that this is strictly irrelevant. The firms must understand that the cloud providers are in no way responsible for the further protection of data in the cloud. Only the user, who has access to it all is the one who needs to be cautious at all times. Until it is mentioned in the SLA, the cloud providers are in no way responsible for the damage that could be done in the cloud storage. The organization needs to take some crucial steps to foreshadow this dilemma, in the beginning, to enhance cloud security while ascertaining to the cloud providers.

7. To Ward Off Human Errors in Diligence

Flourishing BYOD environment raises the risk of hackers who can methodically get into cloud security to disrupt any sensitive information. The cause of this could be the erroneous credentials in the cloud data and information. Also, unknown cloud service providers can land you in some serious trouble causing serious damage to the information and hence due-diligence must be certified before certifying a cloud service provider.

Read Here: Security Essentials for Writers: Safeguarding Your Work in a Digital Age

How to Secure Cloud Data and Applications

1. Stringent Transitional Data should be Encrypted

A secure interaction must be established between different servers. It must be performed with high-end security i.e., the SSL transmission which should be terminated after use.

2. Ergonomic Data Must be Encrypted

The critical data must be encrypted top serve the purpose of contractual obligations in the right way. The data piled on disks must be encrypted with AES-256.

3. Should have Surmountable Protective Layering

Certain service level agreement isn’t enough to protect everything, hence a role-driven access control must be used so that user-specific data is disclosed to the user and high standards of security measures can be claimed.

4. Legitimate Testing of Vulnerability of Data

Certain steps are taken by the cloud solutions providers like the deployment of tools are vulnerable resulting in some serious cloud issues. Certain tests are should be taken as such to validate the issues regarding the weak system and various security concerns. Regular scans must be performed every day if required.

5. A Self-Destruct Mode should be established

A pseudo-self-destruction option or in more sensible terms programmed deletion option of customer’s crucial data must be installed so that the data might get eliminated after the Customer’s contract.

6. Stringent Compliance Certifications Required

Usually, there are two Crucial Certifications:

I. SOC 2 type II

This system helps the company to handle internal errors, various regulatory compliances while maintaining a high-security level.

II. PCI DSS

By undergoing simple audits, this certification must be implied by the organization which requires various qualifications for better management of security, software design, by-laws network architecture, and other sensitive protective practices.

Synopsis

The quirkiness of a system is best acclaimed by its cloud server and how to secure the data it holds. So this blog is highly beneficial for those in need of some serious cyber therapy regarding the issues for security mainly focusing on Secure Cloud Services. You can approach Software Quality Assurance Testing Company for the security of your cloud information and run your business without any data leakage.