Unless there are proper precautions in place to protect data, the information in the cloud can be vulnerable. To protect your critical data and transactions therefore, the following measures should be taken:

Practice internet safety

A properly secured network requires the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) as well as the implementation of secure socket layer license/transport layer (SSL/TLS). These two are helpful in making sure that your connection to the internet is secure and does not leave you exposed when working with crucial information that may subject your company to attacks. While VPN makes your connection private and keeps your online presence and information anonymous, TLS/SSL on the other hand will encrypt and safeguard your sensitive information between your browser and the cloud. This makes it hard for criminals to access and read it.

Use 2-factor authentication

Many professionals have termed passwords as insecure as they are designed to be easy to remember. This however means that it is also easy to be hacked. Owing to this weakness, businesses must embrace a multifactor authentication (MFA) to secure their systems. MFA assumes that single authentication is never perfect and therefore there is need for a second or even a third method to compensate the weaknesses that the other methods have. The other authentication factor makes it hard for people to access your information or accounts without it. The second authentication mechanism can be a token, voice or fingerprint.

Use encryption on connected devices

Encryption is among the leading methods of securing your information on any platform. However, encryption should extend beyond the information that you keep in the cloud. Rather, as a business owner, you must always make sure that you encrypt all your connected devices such as drives, USBs and others since any unencrypted data stored on these devices may jeopardize the privacy and may put the content stored in the cloud at risk. As such, your organization may end up losing finances and identity of the company as well as the customers in the process.  Unencrypted data is at risk of being accessed by malicious persons. However, encrypting systems and data eradicates the possibility of unauthorized persons accessing sensitive data without having an encryption key.

Backup information

There is no alternative to backing up your information. This is the most critical aspect which always acts as the last line of defense in case your information is targeted by attackers through ransomware or other forms of attacks. Although modern-day attackers use sophisticated programs that may delete backups, backups are still the most critical methods of ensuring that your data remain safe even after attacks. Despite the cloud being a safe option taking into account infrastructure that the cloud service providers have laid down, you must always make sure that the most crucial information at your disposal is always backed up and encrypted.

With the increase in the number of connected devices, data has become crucial in running the daily business operations. However, even with the availability of cloud computing and security which has been prioritized with the vendors, data can still be vulnerable. With the implementation of approaches such as backup, encryption of devices and information among other approaches, data can be secured and your business can operate efficiently.