5 key ways to secure your cloud from cyber-attacks

Nowadays, if you look at the business industry or even on an individual level, cloud computing is an absolute necessity. This means that sensitive data, applications, and workloads are imperative. With this said, it’s of utmost importance that your cloud environment is secure. This is because cyber attacks targeting vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure are at an all time high.

Here’s what will be covered in this article – 5 key methods that you can use to protect and secure your cloud environment from attacks while keeping your data safe.

  1. Strong Passwords

A cybercriminal usually always starts by cracking weak passwords when trying to access one’s cloud systems. This highlights the importance of secure password authentication.

To prevent unauthorized access, choose strong, unique passwords for every cloud service. In order to mitigate the risk of a potential attack, ensuring a strong combination of letter cases, numbers, and symbols when choosing your password is a must.

One of the helpful tools for protecting your cloud account is the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). MFA adds another verification step to access a cloud account that not only includes the password but encompasses a wide range of options like text messages or even an authentication app. It reduces the chances of unauthorized access even further by adding an additional layer of security.

Encrypting sensitive information is one of the best methods to protect data on the move and to conceal it. There are various ways within encryption to accommodate for sensitive information:

  • Protect Information with Encryption

This simply means that whatever information is uploaded to the cloud server is protected by encryption and is impossible for anyone else to read without the correct decryption key. In the unfortunate scenario that a hacker accesses the storage, they won’t be able to view any information further than what is being displayed to them.

Encryption In Transit

Sensitive information, customer details and even business secrets ought to be encrypted before submitting online to conceal the information from hackers. Data transmission must be protected on all fronts.

Encryption forms not only protect data from being viewed but also alter it in a manner so that if the data is intercepted, the person on the other end will not be able to understand it.

  • Your Cloud Systems Need Regular Updates and Patches

Most criminals target weaknesses in systems and software that are no longer maintained. For the cloud environment, receiving the latest updates drastically minimizes the security risks at hand. This is how you do it:

Patching:

In general, cloud providers will issue patches to rectify bugs and vulnerabilities. When these patches are applied as needed, your systems are protected from newer threats.

Automated Updates:

If you have that option, let your cloud infrastructure update itself, so you do not bother with the worry of forgetting to patch your systems. Keeping up with these updates helps to prevent security loopholes.

Despite how easy it is to set patch updates, they are an extremely effective way at protecting a cloud environment.

  • Restrict Access & Utilize The Least Privilege Rule

To effectively secure your cloud, the environment you use should be set to a high restriction level. This is where the least privilege rule comes into play.

Access Control

Ensure particular people get specific access. Only allow access to the cloud to those who need it to do their work. For example, not everyone in your organization may need admin access. Doing so reduces the number of users exposed to great risk in case an account gets hacked.

Role-Based Permissions

Users’ roles should be classified according to the work they are supposed to do. For example, a developer may have access to certain code repositories, but probably not to sensitive financial information. Role-based access allows you to make sure that employees and contractors can only see or edit what they need to.

  • Monitor Cloud Activity And Set Alerts

Cloud activities ought to be tracked in real time because they help to identify malicious actions early before they morph into security pitfalls. Alerts can help you detect issues quickly.

Ongoing Monitoring

Employ monitoring for cloud infrastructure to observe activities within your cloud space. Such activities may include logins, changes made, and the accessing of sensitive information. These tools will follow and monitor all cases of activity.

Notifications About Suspicious Activity:

Automatic alerts can notify you whenever anything out of the ordinary occurs. You will receive an alert if a login attempt is made from a geographical location that differs from the previously used ones. This enables you to take action and look into the issue before a breach happens.

Keeping vigilant over your cloud environment enables you to catch cyber-attacks early and lessen the damage greatly.

Final Thoughts

Using the cloud is a mutual responsibility, and beating off cyber attacks to your cloud requires active engagement and monitoring. By employing these 5 key strategies: strong authentication methods, data encryption, regular maintenance, access limitations, and activity monitoring, you should be able to greatly decrease the chances of suffering a cyber-attack.

A point to remember, protecting your cloud is not a one-off activity, infect it is a process that is continuous. Protecting your own cloud environment from possible threats is done through proactivity.