Now, businesses need to access all sorts of documents digitally and also need a secure place to store them. The technology that offers this solution is cloud storage, which has become an essential tool in businesses of all sizes. Cloud storage offers numerous advantages, including accessibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. In addition, cloud storage provides a high level of security, helping prevent the online threats businesses face, such as unauthorised access, data breaches, and ransomware attacks. 

The best way to protect your business’s security is to choose a cloud storage provider renowned for its security and safety. But other practices will prove helpful, and in this article, we will explore some of them. We will begin with the most common security threats in cloud storage. Keep reading to learn more. 

What are the security threats that apply to cloud storage? 

• Data breaches: Hackers are always trying to gain access to companies’ data and then release it online, which opens the door to breaches. 
• Unauthorised access: Unauthorised access means that someone accessed the company’s files without the management’s permission. Weak and stolen passwords are among the most common ways hackers get access to their data. 
• Insider threats: Unfortunately, in some cases, the company faces risks in its cloud storage due to insider threats, where employees can intentionally or unintentionally expose data. 
• Ransomware attacks: Hackers can gain access to cloud storage and then demand a ransom to force you to pay money to regain access to your files. 

What are the best practices for maintaining the security of your cloud storage? 

End-to-end encryption

End-to-end encryption is one of the best ways to protect the business cloud. This encryption ensures that the data can’t be read by hackers, even if they gain access to these files. Thanks to encryption, hackers can’t see what those files contain because they don’t have the decryption key. 

So, companies that want to protect their data in the cloud should encrypt it before uploading to secure the files. The best approach is to use a cloud storage provider renowned for its security solutions. In this way, you ensure that your files are encrypted both at rest and in transit. Another important practice is to store encryption keys in a safe, separate location to add an extra layer of security. 

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication can also be a great solution, as it adds an extra layer of security and reduces the risk of unauthorised access by requiring users to confirm their identity in multiple ways. This includes biometrics, passwords, and other one-time codes. To protect your company data, ensure all employees use multi-factor authentication when accessing cloud storage. 

Strong access control

The easiest way to maintain the security of your accounts is to prevent unauthorised access from the very first time. This can be done in numerous ways, and among the most common are role-based access control (RBAC), which grants access to files based on job roles to prevent users from accessing sensitive data. 

Employees should also have access to the files necessary for their tasks, but not to all the cloud storage. Continuous monitoring is also essential to ensure you can still access and revoke permissions if you see that some employees shouldn’t have access to these files. 

Train employees

Sometimes a company’s data is compromised due to an employee error. With the prevalence of online threats, workers increasingly face these challenges in their everyday lives. This is why it is much better to train them from the start, so they can recognise danger early, before it escalates into something much bigger. 

So, keep in mind that human error can cause cloud security breaches, which is why you need to help employees identify the best ways to protect data. One of these practices is conducting regular cybersecurity training, which helps workers become accustomed to the most common online threats. Additionally, they can learn how to practice good password hygiene and avoid setting weak passwords so they don’t compromise their data and make it much easier for hackers to access it. Another great idea is to establish a cloud security policy that sets guidelines and rules to keep your data in cloud storage secure and private. 

Maintain constant monitoring

Suppose you want to maintain a high level of security at all times. In that case, you also need to monitor cloud storage security to identify potential weaknesses. In this way, you can respond to these security threats before they cause long-lasting consequences for your company. This way, you can mitigate threats from the first moment they appear. 

There are good practices that encourage this approach, and among the most common ones are cloud security tools that offer real-time threat detection. You can also integrate an incident response plan that outlines the steps employees should follow in the event of a security breach. 

Last remarks

Nowadays, we deal with documents online all the time, so we need to find a way to protect them against hackers’ attempts. This is even more important if your business has sensitive data and you don’t want to go through the aftermath of a lawsuit. 

Cloud storage has proved essential for storing all our digital files, and to pick the best one, we need to look for providers that offer strong access controls and end-to-end encryption. Then, you can add an extra level of safety by enabling multi-factor authentication, using only strong passwords, and regularly reviewing access controls. 

Businesses that want to protect themselves should always adopt best practices to stay protected and make it impossible for hackers to access their files.