cloud service Archives - Foster Institute

Should You Trust Cloud Storage?

Mike Foster — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 06:00:03 +0000

iCloud, SkyDrive, DropBox, etc. – Are they secure? How do you know how much to trust “the cloud?” Here are the answers…

In most cases, when any service gets breached, they step up their security. One of the biggest reasons that services provide tight security is because they know their reputation depends on it. If they do suffer a breach, they might become more secure that anyone else – at least for a while.

Do this:

Any data that is non-sensitive in any way, feel completely confident using any of the “cloud” services. This is both for convenience (so you can share between devices and share with people outside of your organization) and or “backup” or archival purposes.

Any data that you deem as slightly sensitive, but the consequences of a breach would be minimal, store that information in the cloud too. When you are making your decision, assume there is a 10% chance that this data will be exposed while in the cloud. In reality, the chance of exposure is probably significantly less than 1%, at least from a technology standpoint. I want you to be overly cautious when you choose what not to put into the cloud. User and Employee error is also an important factor to consider.

For an added protection: Encrypt the files and data before you put it into the cloud. If you use a service to backup your computer to the cloud, make positive to set the proper settings to encrypt those backups.

For your most sensitive data, store it only on computers that you have direct control over. Do not store any data in the cloud if the loss of the data would be devastating to you, your business, or your customers who trust you with their sensitive information. Period.

The key to knowing what to (and what not to) put into the cloud is to categorize your data and consider risks vs. benefits. Cloud storage can save you time, money, and provide added functionality. Make informed decisions about what to store there.

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Be cautious about using the cloud

Mike Foster — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:00:57 +0000

In the last blog post I talked about the big benefits of the cloud. What should you, as an executive, be on the lookout for?

Sometimes one of your organization’s most important applications, such as your ERP, offers a cloud based solution. If you have your internal application customized to populate forms in your word processing programs, etc., you may lose the ability to perform customizations if you move to the cloud.

The same with sharing data between your local applications. Moving one of your most important applications to the cloud may eliminate the ability to share data with your other applications.

It may be expensive to convert your systems to run in the cloud.

Using a cloud service just adds one more entity to the finger pointing game of “the hardware guy blames the software guy, who blames the cloud provider, who blames the Internet Service Provider” etc.

In the past, it was easy to define the perimeter of your network as existing at your firewall. Everything outside your firewall is “out there” and everything inside your firewall is “in here.” Utilizing cloud services for your private data blurs the delineation.

In the next blog post I’ll focus on the dangers of the cloud.

Please post your comments on this blog.

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Don’t install anti-virus on your computers?

Mike Foster — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:00:01 +0000

If you use a cloud service to provide anti-virus to your computers, you don’t need to install anti-virus anymore.

Although, you may need to install a small client on your machines that can communicate with the anti-virus service.

You may hear this referred to as SAAS Software as a service anti-virus. So far, at least three vendors are offering this service to business (not personal) customers including Symantec’s hosted End Point Protection, McAfee SaaS Endpoint Protection, and Web Sense’s Triton Technology.

One of the benefits of this technology is that your computers no longer need to have the latest “signature updates” installed. The latest signatures are, in theory, available in the cloud the instant your anti-virus vendor creates the signature.

Someday your anti-virus may be provided from the cloud too!

Please post your comments on this blog.

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