How safe is your data? The answer can mean the difference between growing your business and going out of business.
The recent theft and release of celebrity photos is a reminder that even high-profile cloud security systems can still be vulnerable to breach. It’s important for consumers and businesses to understand the security protocols that can keep both personal and professional information accessible yet still private.
Businesses use cloud-based storage for solid reasons: cost, scalability and ease of access. But consumer solutions brought in by their employees (call it BYOC or “Bring Your Own Cloud”) allow workers to share often sensitive data to cloud-based programs that offer insufficient protection from threats like PRISM, Heartbleed and most recently BASH.
Your business data deserves an enterprise-class sharing and storage solution that offers flexibility while also providing layers of security. Reputable vendors will offer four must-have features:
Regardless of security, some data is simply too sensitive to live in the cloud. There are two things to look for to reduce errors when data is manipulated, save time and retain full control and visibility. First, a reputable vendor will help design a tiered system that evaluates the risks and offers options for sharing and storing that does not use the cloud. Secondly, the security that is on the cloud—permissions, authentication, etc.—should integrate with the on-premises solution so that IT doesn’t have to rebuild it, and can manage it from a single pane of glass.
Every system, whether enterprise or consumer, should offer the following built-in protections:
Your data (or data belonging to your clients) deserves to be as protected as possible from security breaches. Make sure that your vendor is offering the latest safeguards before trusting your information to a cloud-based system. To ensure company-wide engagement, these safeguards shouldn’t restrict end-user capabilities to share information in and out of a company, nor should they weigh down the user experience.
IT’s challenge is to implement policies that protect company data - a critical business asset - without reducing collaboration and productivity.
Kris Lahiri is Co-Founder & Chief Security Officer of Egnyte. Mr. Lahiri is responsible for Egnyte's security and compliance, as well as core infrastructure, including storage and data center operations. Prior to Egnyte, Kris spent many years in the design and deployment of large scale infrastructure for Fortune 100 customers of Valdero and KPMG Consulting. Kris has a B.Tech in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Banaras, and an MS from the University of Cincinnati. Follow Egnyte on Twitter (News - Alert): @Egnyte