Check Your Cloud Security Industry Standards Now
Whether you find yourself in the majority camp or not, most companies now outsource their business tasks and cloud security industry standards requirements to a third-party cloud service provider. That is what we do here at Insynq. We provide small and medium-sized businesses access to all the software they need to complete tasks involving nearly everything from bookkeeping to customer relationships. Moving these tasks to the cloud saves your business money. You’re no longer responsible for buying and updating all the software. Nor are you responsible for hiring and maintaining an IT team. You can devote much more of your time to growing your business.
Ready to give up all that responsibility to your cloud service provider? Great. Before you take that leap, I have to clue you in to a side of the service you might not have thought about. You are still ultimately responsible for all of your clients’ data. You also need to make sure you’re sticking to cloud security industry standards.
Hiring a cloud service provider can definitely simplify your workflow. It can help your business run more efficiently at minimal cost. Make sure you get the best service you can by following these best practices.
the ever-evolving cloud security industry standards
The Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization that was founded to help businesses and clients navigate (and protect themselves!) within the cloud environment.
The CSA is concerned with a whole range of issues that businesses might encounter when using cloud technology. The organization constantly re-evaluates cloud security standards. It runs educational workshops, too. Here’s a sample:
– Information lifecycle management
– Governance and enterprise risk management
– Compliance and audit
– Encryption and key management
– Storage
– Virtualization
– Application security
– Portability and interoperability
– Data center operations management
– Incident response, notification, remediation
When you’re looking to move all or part of your business to the cloud, here’s what you should ask any cloud service provider:
1. What is your approach to data encryption? If the provider thinks that a password is the only and best protection in all cases, you might want to look elsewhere. Yes, password protection is important. But, every bit of data should be encrypted, too. Find out if the encryption keys are kept in a location away from the encrypted data.
2. What level of data durability do you provide? The safer your data, the less likely you’ll suffer a loss of files. The cloud service provider should store all your files in triplicate (or more) at data centers located in different locations.
3. How do you protect your clients? This may seem too general a question. But think of it this way. Every day we access data via desktops, computers, laptops, and a variety of other mobile devices. We might even grant file access to most staff and clients. With all of that open access, how will the cloud service provider make sure that no one tampers with the firewall and private data?
Ready to talk about how well your business aligns with cloud security industry standards? Give us a call!