Safely Storing Data in the Cloud

It’s not easy to make sure all your data and documents are protected when using the cloud. It often seemed like 2014 was ‘the year of the hack’, with the Apple iCloud fiasco, the revelation of the Heartbleed security bug, the North Korea vs Sony movie battle, and innumerable data thefts from companies’ supposedly secure servers.

Against this backdrop it is more important than ever to make sure you’re protected online. Cloud storage is convenient and cost-effective, but both these benefits are entirely dependent on how secure your information is – a stolen file or a leaked document could cost a business its existence, as competitors capitalise, market advantage is lost, and customers look elsewhere.

Of course, there are certain steps any individual or business can take to ensure they make life as difficult as possible for would-be cyber criminals:

Passwords

According to a recent Deloitte study, more than 90 percent of passwords created by users can be cracked within less than ten seconds.

You need to create a secure and unique password for each of the online services that you use. Use a password-naming convention to help you regularly change and remember your current password for a specific online service. Remember, doubling your email password for other services you use (your Facebook account, your cloud storage account) is a terrible idea – all your login information and forgotten passwords always arrive to your email.

Encryption

One of the easiest ways to safeguard your privacy when using cloud storage services is to look for one that offers local encryption for your data. This provides an additional layer of security because decryption will be required before you can be granted access to the data.

With the additional step of encrypting and decrypting your data, you may find that syncing your files with your cloud drive takes longer – but it’s a necessary evil and one that shouldn’t be ignored.

Back-Up Data Locally

The most important rule for managing data to always have a backup. You can either set up a cloud account for backup purposes, or use a USB drive to back-up data that’s already in the cloud.

Storage Made Easy

Storage Made Easy offers some of the best backup and security features in the marketplace, along with some of the most competitive pricing.

Their service lets all files be encrypted, even if the underlying storage cloud does not support encryption. It means sensitive information stored in local storage or remote clouds can be securely encrypted. Furthermore, users can choose to have data stored in a nominated ‘primary cloud’ and have it automatically backed-up to a ‘backup cloud’ to ensure the data is always available when it’s needed. The service also includes an easy-to-use email backup that integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. Finally, it uses a sophisticated protocol gateway that exposes access to files from common protocols irrespective of whether these are supported on the back end storage or not.

They offer both personal and business solutions, with pricing starting from $59.99 per license or $5 per user per month respectively.

You can contact them on Skype or social media for more info.

Post Sponsored By Storage Made Easy

By Daniel Price